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 "INFECTION."
BY

SIR J. CLARKE JERVOISE, BART.

WITH

REMAEKS
BY

MISS NIGHTINGALE

SECON D EDITION.

ITonbon;

PRINTED BY YACHER & SONS,

29, PARLIAMENT STREET, AND 62, MILLBANK STREET, S.W,

1882.
 PREFACE.

IDS^YORTH, HORNDEAK,

HiXTS,

Feb. U(ft, 1882.

In com])]iaucc with the suggestion that I should repnhlish the

pamphlet "Infection," (which I \vi'ote anonymously in the year

1867) with my name and address, and in consideration of "how

many things have ha2:)pened since then," I do so in the hope that

the cause of truth and science may be promoted thereby.

J. CLARKE JERYOISE,
Magistrate and D.L. for the County, and Ude
M.P. for the Southern Division of the
County of Southampton.

A 2
 —

INFECTION.

Some Members of Parliament and others having said

that would write out my observations on the subject of
if I
infection they would read them, I have determined on putting
them into print and I am the more encouraged to do so by
;

the following extract from ''The Lancet" in a county paper

for May 18th, 1867 :—

THE LOQUACIOUS HAMPSHIHE MEMBER ON INFECTIOUS

AND CONTAGIOUS DISEASES.
" When Chloroform wasintroduced into the practice of medicine,
first
objection to its use in obstetrical and other cases was taken, on the plea
that suffering was not only natural, but was even ordained to be the lot of
mankind. This argument, fallacious as it is, has some ground, however
uncertain, to rest upon. The objectors to the use of chloroform do not
deny the fact that it relieves pain, but they deny that it is right that that
relief should be given. Sir C. Jervoise has not even this shallow foundation
on which to base the arguments he adduced the other night in the House
of Commons against taking precautionary measures to limit the spread of
infectious (ind coiitdijious diseases.* The bon. baronet did not 'believe'
in infection or contagion, and characterised as 'cruel' and costly the
efforts which have been made to stop their progress. Lord R. ilontague
disposed of the 'belief of Sir C. Jervoise in a few trenchant and common-
sense remarks. It would be a matter of very little moment what were the
articles of belief of the worthy baronet upon a subject which he certainly
does not understand, were the influence they exert not most injurious to a
large class of the ignorant and unthinking." Lfnici't.

I have never seen a number of the " Lancet," but the

A\'ord reminds one of letting hlood at spring and fall and other ^

practice, done in good faith, but against common sense. I

am much indebted to the Editor of the ''Lancet" for his
"trenchant" criticism. For my own part, I have only to
say, that I never doubted the benefits conferred on suffering
Immanity by the discovery of chloroform, and its predecessor
(ether) but, if it had been prescribed, without effect, for
;

* Contagions diseases are expressly cxckuled, unless to define the difference

between the meaning of tlie term, as distinguished from In/eclious diseases thus con-
founded with them by " The Lancet."
 —

stamping out a disease wliicli subsequently raged for two

yearSj and then recommenced, I should doubt tlic quality of
the physic or tlic qualification of the physician. WJien Gil
Bias, in good faith, was practising the system of his ]\Iaster
Sangrado, his patient said, Hold, Gil Bias, for though I
''

" have not a drop of blood left in my body, 1 don't feel better.
" I see clearly that I must die, but do let me die quietly."
On the 3rd May I moved an address to the Crown (Xo. 1,

in the orders of the day), but in consequence of the superior

claims to attention of the supposed cases of hardship and
cruelty to the Fenian prisoners in Mountjoy prison, I did not
rise till between 9 and 10 o'clock, " impransus," to address an
audience, indifferent, or hostile, as I believed, with two
successive governments opposed to me, as well as foregone
conclusions, popular belief, or perhaps superstition, tlie old
faith, Avhich known
is to survive even the language of a
country ; and to move a resolution which, if carried, would be
an admission of the unnecessary loss, groundless alarm^ and
loanton injustice^ which had been inflicted on the country in

consequence of action being taken on hypothesis, unsupported

by demonstration.*
I have no complaint to make of the report of my speech,
and no regret at having brought the subject forward. Neither
have I any fault to find witJi the answer I received from the
Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education.
Motion and Answer :

CONTAGIOUS AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES.

Jervoisk rose, according to notice, to muvo 'that an humlilc
'•'Sir J. C.
address be presented to Her Majesty praving tlint Her Majesty will be
graciously pleased to cause such iiKpiiry to he instituted as may lead to the
better distinction l)etween contai^ious diseases and such as are termed
infectious, so as to obviate, as far as possible, the loss, alarm, and injustice
consequent on the theory of the infectious nature of certain diseases when
unsiij)ported by demonstation.' The subject of the conveyance of disorders
by some mysterious a'^ency from one person to another in our state of
society must, he thouglit, be regarded as one of the most important matters

• " It was one thingsay a few words there surrounded by kind friends, and
to
quite another to pet up in House of Commons where every one wislicd you to sit
tlie

down." (Lord G. Cavendish," Timc.»." Oct. 6th, U\'H.\

which could engage their attention. It affected people in every position
in life, every association, and every meeting of persons in every capacity,
whether at home, abroad, or in the colonies and it might be viewed in
;

its bearing not only on persons who were at liberty, but on a class of persons
—
whose case had been under discussion that evening viz., those who were
placed in confinement. Nothing could be more shocking, if the theory
alluded to in his notice of motion were true, than the idea that persons
locked up in gaols should find themselves subject to the influence of
infectious disorders.The hon. member referred to a tale written by a
French author about a poor leper and his sister, who were shut up in a
tower and condemned to a miserable life of seclusion on account of their
fearful malady. Their only companion was a little cur dog, and the sister
having died, the brother was left alone with the pet dog, which, however, the
authorities ordered to be destroyed, in order to prevent the infection from
being carried elsewhere and the wretched man at last committed suicide
;

to relieve himself from an insupportable existence. That tale was founded

so much upon fact that it might be said to be almost a true representation
of the state of things in certain eastern countries. The infectious nature of
leprosy was believed in in many parts of India, where great cruelties were
inflicted in connection with the precautions adopted in regard to those
who suffered from that malady. The hon. baronet who aiidressed the
House a considerable time, and was almost inaudible, avowed himself a
disbeliever in infection, and was understood to depreciate specifics pre-
scribed and recommended to protect persons supposed to be especially
exposed to it. He
derided precautions that were too complicated or costly
for general adoption by those upon whom they were urged, and asked, for
instance, what was the use of urging that no water should be drunk that
had not been boiled if people were destitute of the means of boiling it. He
also referred to the outbreaks of scarlet fever at Southampton, Aldershot
Camp, and elsewhere, with the view of showing that medical men, trained
nurses, and others in immediate contact with patients, escaped the com-
munication of the disease and noticing the supposition that medical men
;

carried it to their own children, remarked that if such communication were

probable the patients of medical men were exposed to danger quite as much
as the members of their own families.
" Lord R. Montagu said that a commissioner had been sent to Russia to
inquire into the black disease,' and this gentleman reported that the
'

disease was not infectious, so that it did come und^r the motion of the hon.
member. It was true that in the other House, Earl Granville said a great
many persons had died from it but this was a mistake. Earl Granville
;

was alluding to another disease which also existed in Russia, and which was
highly infectious. This disease broke out among cattle, and was communi-
cated to human beings and, according to the last reports, upwards of
;

70,000 cattle were killed by it during the year and 30,000 men. As to
the cattle plague, this was not the time for a cattle plague debate, the
proper occasion for which would be when a Bill was introduced on the
subject. He was sorry to say, however, that there had been recently a
fresh outbreak of cattle plague in London. The existence of the disease
here was suspected for some little time owing to the removal of cattle from
some dairies. At last it was discovered that the disease existed in one
London dairy where there were 39 cows, which all had the disease, and all
of which were killed. This happened in the preceding week, and he
trusted that the slaughter of these cattle had prevented the further spread
of the disease. With regard to contagious and infectious diseases, the
 — a

two terms were treated pretty much as convertible but iufection was the
;

term, being, in fact, the genus, while contagion was the species. Infectious
diseases witc tliosc which were cuniiuunicatcd from man to man, or were
generated in the air, or by means external to man. Yellow fever was not
Contagious, though it was infectious and what pos.siblc harm, therefore,
;

was tliere in Dr. .Seaton's visit to the ship at the Mutherbank ? The disease
was communicated by the air and not by contact witli persons. Perhaps
the hon. member would say, Why. then, impose any quarantine?' The
'

answer was, that it was not a medical but a commercial quarantine it ;

was imposed, not through fear of the s))read of yellow fever, but in order
that our ships and merchandise should not be exposed to quarantine
abroad, and subjected to the loss which that would entail. The laws con-
nected with the comnmnication of diseases were pretty well known by
this time. There might be some few special disea.scs upon which addi-
tional knowledge was required. But surely the Health Ofhco, in which
there were two or three medical men of great scientific attainments, aflordod
a better means of investigation tlian that proposed by the hon. member —
Commission composed of a chemist and a lawyer. (A laugh), lie did not
know wliat would be the business of the lawyer, except, he supposed, to
impose the restrictions of law upon the spread of di.«;case. But the hon.
gentleman would sec that with men who had spent all their lives in the
investigation of the subject, and with all the appliances at their command,
the Privy Council had means at their disposal much better than the com-
mission which the hon. baronet recommended. The hon. baronet had
alluded to cholera. He was happy to say that upon this important subject
most careful and accurate investigations had been carried on, the results
had been tabulated, and in a few days a voluminous report would appear,
which, he trusted, would be satisfactory to the hon. baronet. There Avcrc
other points to which the hon. baronet had called attention, but, as he had
considerable difhculty in hearing the hon. gentlemen's remarks, he trusted
that would be sufficient excuse if he desisted from pursuing the subject
further." Times, Mmj -ilh, 1SG7.
The motion for an address was then withdrawn.

AVliatcvcr notice might be taken of the motion, it was

certain to be productive of some gain.
A a fallacy mtist needs be drawn forth, and, by
fact or
tlie process of " quod erat clemonstramhan,^^ or by that of
'^
quod est absurdum,^^ the cause of trutli must be a gainer.
In tlie question of the commnnicability of disorders, politics
do not enter. ]5oth parties have born either right or very
wrong in tlicir legislation and administration. It may be
presumption in nic to think I am right, but it is not im-
possible, For a long time it was considered that ''
Nature
abhorred a vacuum," and, although I may not aspire to the
position of a Torricelli, I may to that of the sceptic, who,
while the Royal K5oeiety were puzzling over the problem
propounded by the Merry Monarch, '*
JVJiy a carp of a given
" weight does not cause the huchet of xoaler into which it is thrown

''
to weigh heavier? " suggested that the experiment sliould be
tried. I sliall, I am confident, be pardoned, if I am not
altogether acquitted, for having brought the subject, however
imperfectly, before Parliament and the country.
I have, from time to time, asked Questions in the House
of Commons'^ on the subject of the communication of disease
by the process of infection^ and I had intended to use the
Questions as landmarks to guide mc on my road, but speak-
ing without notes, the first reference I made to these
documents showed me that I could not read what a few
hours before, in the daylight, had been legible enough.
But I will not compromise by naming one who seconded
me (unasked) in the daring heresy of supposing that the
statement in the Sixth Report of the Medical Officer of
the Privy Council —" And though the present and other
" illustrations cannot increase knowledge (which has long
" been conclusive) with respect to the causation of disease "
— is not to be accepted as a dogma, or of suggesting that a
chemist and a lawyer might bo as good a tribunal to inquire
into the nature of the so-called infectious diseases of man
and beast, and to judge of the value of the evidence adduced,
as the two or three gentlemen connected loith the Board of
Healthy of great scientific attainments ^ loho had j)rettg well
ascertained the nature of cdl diseases, whether contagious or
infectious.

Availing myself of the subject of the preceding motion

to suggest the shocking idea of confining prisoners in a gaol
affected, by what is deemed an infectious disease, I had
in memory Avhat occurred the previous year in Mountjoy
Prison. I am happy to have preserved this extract in
refutation of the thought.

* Mr. Gladstone, "They (Questions) have now become a very serious, and I am
hound add, a very important part of the business, and therefore not frivolous or
to
trifling" (hear, hear). —
"Times," July 2nd, 1881.
 —

10

"Dr. F. R. CuuiSE, writing in the British >fcdical Journal,' gives

'

details of the recent outbreak nf cholera in ^luuntjoy Prison. They will

serve to correct various erroneous statements that have been made on the
subject. There has been no new case since December 27. The attack
commenced on Sunday, December 23, the health of the establishment
having been previously quite satisf;\ctory. The epidemic lasted live days,
during which time nine cases of Asiatic cholera, with collapse, oecured, and
four terminated fatally. The inhabitants of the prison are convicts,
together with about 140 untried prisoners, now confined under the Habeas
Corpus Suspension Act. Most of the cases of cholera occurred among the
convicts. The outbreak was immediately notilied to the Government, and
the most active sanitary measures were at once put into force, under tlie
direction of the medical olhcer of the ])risou, Dr. Itobert M'Donnell. To
the i)romptitude and energy with which these measures Avere carried out
undoubtedly may fairly be attributed the rapid subjection of the attack.
Perhajjs the most interesting point in connection with this particular
visitation is the difliculty in tracing its origin. A'o case of cholera has taken
place among the oflicers of the establishment or their families. The
prisoners in the various divisions of the prison do not communicate with
each other, nor with the same oflicers ; nevertheless, cases arose simul-
taneously in these divisions. The water supply is derived from the
reservoirs of the north side of the city. It is received in a supply-tank,
from which it is pumped by a steam-engine to cisterns on the top of the
building. This supply-tank is pumped empty every 24 hours. From its
situation it is absolutely secure from all risk of contamination from sewage,
etc. The adjoining Female Convict Prison is supplied from the same tank.
But no case of cholera occurred in the Female Prison. The food recently
supplied has, on examination, been reported of unexceptionable quality.
The different divisions of the prison are not on the same diet, neither is the
food for them cooked in the sanio vessels. ]S'evertheless the disease
a])peared in all the divisions. The disease could not be ascribed to
atmospheric influences, for the prison is on one of the healthiest situations
in Dublin." I'iincs, Jdnuanj Slli, 1867,

Since I brought tlic subject bctbre the House some

progress, as f consider, has been made in the road which
I travelled over, as Avill be seen by the follinving from the
'^
Pall Mall Gazette " of May 22nd,"^18C.7 :—
OCCASIOXAL NOTES.
"Mr. Cave explained to the House of Commons last night that our
quarantine establishments are kept up for no useful ]iurpose whatever, but
wholly and solely to satisfy the proju<liccs of other nations. The Mediter-
ranean countries would ])ut us into quarantine at once if we did not keep
up a quarantine ourselves. In 182") Mr. Iluskisson tt^ok upon himself to
issue free ))ratique to ships in Portsmouth, Southampton, and London ;

and tlir" result Avas that the whole of the United Kingdom was i)Ut into
quarantine at all the Meiliterranean ports. This, and not any anticipated
danger from the importation of yellow fever, is the real reason why we
relegates the unhaiipy passengers in om- West India steamers to the Mother-
bank, Avhenever, during the homeward pa.ssage, a stoker dies of yellow
fever engendered by r\im, over-Avork, and miasma, Avhilst coaling at
St. Thomas's."'
 11

The argument in favour of infection, deduced from the

number of victims, is disposed of by tlie accounts of a
terrible outbreak of yellov7 fever at Mauritius, in the
journals of May 23rd, 1867, from February 10th to
April 17th — total, 13,56-1. " Quinine advanced to the
enormous price of £12 per ounce."
On Marcli 28th, on the occasion of the second reading of
the Artisans' and Labourers' Dwellings Bill, I gave the follow-
ing definition (not original), which was allowed by a very
influential Member (who
has taken an active part in sanitary
questions), and not disputed at the time, to be correct * :
—
Contagion is the communication of disease from an unhealthy
to a healthy snTjject at an inaj^jy^^ciahle distance.

Infection is the communication of disease from an unhealthy

to a healthy subject at an appreciable distance.

I learnt, from the reply to my motion on jMay 3rd, that

the two terms were treated pretty much as convertible ; but
infectionwas the large term, being, in fact, the genus, while
contagion was the species.
If this be the decision of the " two or three gentlemen
of the Board of Health, of great scientific attainments," there
is nothing in common between us. We are at cross purposes,

and the question falls.

In the definition given by me there is no convertibility ot
terms. In every case of communication, however, something
in the shape of a medium is required ; in contagion it is touch,
in infection it is generally supposed to be a germ or a mole-
cule passing tlirougli tlie air which serves the purpose. Even
in spirit-rapping, a medium, and sometimes a stout one, is
requisite for purposes of communication, "j"

In vaccination, the '^ i^oint.'^ or the virus on the lancet

performs the duties, but I have never heard that it was a
matter of indifference whether this disease was to be con-
veyed at an appreciable^ or at an inappreciahle distance.

* Henry Austin Bruce.

f Alluding to a vory f ortly c!aiivo\ ant of the day.

 12

Danger from infection during the operation is not contem-

plated.
The Turk who taught us inoculation did not trust to ex-
posure to the small pox at an appreciable distance for the com-
parative safety he obtained by inoculation, and I have never

heard admitted as an excuse for the victim of one of the

it

most contagious diseases known, that he had caught it in a

visit to a hospital devoted to the cure of sijecific disease ;

tliough in past centuries this was believed to be possible.

There is also authority for stating, that in the 17th or ISth
century, the gout was believed to be infectious. I am not
called on to prove a negative. All I requested was inquiry,
and I now repeat Avith a little amplification what I then said,

in order to show that something might still be learnt on the

subject of Infection, and even if it turned out that

''
All that we know is, nothing can be known,"

it would still be of use in saving us from ''-

loss, alarm, and
injustice," the consequence of action unguided |jy demon-
strable evidence. In bringing forward my motion on May
3rd, 1867, I am reported to have alkuled to the importance
of the subject of the communication of disorders by some
muster ions agcncjj, and to have illustrated the remark by
reference to the beautiful talc of the " Leprcux dc la cite

d'Aoste." It contains a moral tliat may be considered as com-

prising the Avholc question. I ask every one wlio has not
read tliat story to do so. It will be found in the " Voyage
autour dc ma Chambre," by Xavicr De Maistre. But as I

quoted froni it in English and from memory, may I be par-

*
doned for making a ])araphrase Avitli the book before mo V
In the war of the Alps, 1797, a military ofhcer iinds him-
self in the i)rcsence of a le])or confined, with his sister, to the
precincts of an ancient tower resting on a wall of the town of
Aosta, called the " Tower of Fear." The leper is astonished
at the boldness of the olheer approaching one Avho is deemed,

* I hate caused tliis beautiful story to be translated with a preface and appendix.
 13

and vvlio deems liimself an object of danger and dread to all

the world. He and his sister(made so hideous by disease
that they dare not behold each other's face) fix tlieir affections

on the only living thing with which they are allowed toassociate,
a little dog which, on account of its ugliness, had been turned
out from other quarters, and had been forced to the leper's
lodgings for refuge. The leper encourages the officer to pick
some flowers which he cultivates, " as he will run no risk in
touching them," foralthough the leper loves to sow and water
the flowers, he never touches, for fear of contaminating
them. When the children come to rifle his little garden, he
withdraws into the old tower, " he might frighten or
lest
injure them/' and when they depart they look up towards
him and say, Good day, leper, laughingly," and that
''

rejoices him a little. The sister dies, and the leper stands
alone in the world, with no living thing to console him but
the little cur dog. The medical authorities, however, of the
town of Aosta, see danger in the dog, and considering it might
carry the "(/erws" of the disease among the inhabitants of
the town, the dog is stoned to death in sight of the leper,
whose grief at the moment only permitted him to see cruelty,
in what he avows was a just, though severe, order. He
meditates a crime, not revenge, but self destruction, for he
had contaminated the earth long enough, and wishes that it
may swallow him up and " leave no trace of his detestable
existence.'^ This story is a fiction founded on the facts of
that day, but they are also the facts of the present day, as
may be seen by the extract.

"LEPROSY.
"A report on leprosy by the Royal College of Physicians has been
prepared for Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies. It is a very
.

bulky, very elaborate, and very valuable contribution to our knowledge of

this intricate subject. The College have performed this great labour at the
request of the Government. The suggestion arose out of a letter from the
Governor of Barbadoes to the Duke of Newcastle, stating that this fearful
malady is on the increase in that colony, and suggesting that, hopeless as
the case of the unhappy leper may be, the collection of reports from all the
colonies on the character and progress of the disease, the treatment and
dietary observed, and the general regulation of leper-houses, might be
 —

14

attended with some possible advantages, and tend to ameliorate the

condition of these unhapjiy suflcrers. The College assured the Duke of
Is'ewcastle of their willingness to co-operate in this humane work. On the
nomination of the president, Dr. Biuld, senior censor, Dr. (.)\ven llees,
Dr. A. Farre, Dr. Gull, Dr. Milroy, and Dr. Greenhow were appointed a
committee to frame interrogatories and report on the disease. These
were dispatched to all the colonies, and a considerable muss of evidence has
thus been obtained, and is here elaborately digested and filiated. One most
important conclusion at which they Tiavc arrived discredits entirely the
belief that leprosy is contagious or communicable by proximity or contact
with the diseased. The evidence derived from the ex])erience of the
attendants in leper asylums is especially conclusive un this point. Thus
there is not in this great mass of reports from all parts of the world any- '

thing which justifies measures for the compulsory segregation of lepers.'

In India no such segregation is attempted but in many countries, including
;

some British colonies, the slightest ascertained taint of the malady carries
with it a seclusion tantamount to banishment from the rest of the com-
munity, or even to perjx'tual detention in a lazaret. Enactments fur the
arrest and imprisonment of lepers have been proposed or passed even
within the last few years in some of our Indian colonics. In the villages
of Syria lepers are required to go to Damascus, or some other town where
there may be a public asylum and if they will not conform to this rule,
;

'they are made to live in a cave or hut outside the village, where they
remain in perpetual quarantine.' All such enactments or regulations
should be'abolished." Tiinrs, December 29th, 18G0.

I may here say that tlic report in question is not distri-

buted to Parliament, "because it regards tlie Colonies only.
If the belief in the infectious nature of yellow fever and
the ''
old faith " in k'pro.sy have thus succumbed to truth, is

it unfair to expect that some other disordcr.s may still falla-

ciously be considered infectious? But is the name of Lazar-

liouse, and Pest-house, and Leper-house so clean passed away
as to render fiction stranger than truth
'?

Is there no guarantine, no isolation, no seclusion enjoined"?

No germs, said to carry disease among the inhabitants of a

town ? No dogs slaughtered, in order to stamp these germs
out? Is there no wretchedness endured, and no cruelty
perpetrated under the watchword of " seciu-ity" for the public
health ? Is there nothing lamentable in the following caution,
and no moral to be deduced from these remarks, about
infection ?
"DEATH FEES IX FOREIGN HOTELS.
" Our contemporary, theBuilder,' remarks that it may be an essential
' '

service to those whom the fear or the presence of pulmonary disease drives to
seek an Italian winter, to call their attention to one of the modes in which
 — !;

15

Italian housekeepers often cft'ectually slaughter the gold-dropping bird,' the

type of xEsop's goose who laid the golden eggs. It seems that the Italians
have most couveuiently imbibed the notion that consumption is contagious
and should unhappily a phthisical patient die in an hotel, the bill but
too often contains the singular item
—
'Indemnite pour refraction des meubles
et de la chambre occupee par le defunt, £100 sterling.' As the 'Builder'
very justly observes, the most curious part of the affair is that a con-
sumptive patient may have lingered for months in a suite of rooms, may
have left even but an hour before death, and no charge will be made ;

but should he chance to die there tranquilly in his bed, the necessity for
burning the furniture, for scraping, lime-whiting, and papering the walls,
arises from that sad and simple fact. The ground upon which such a
charge, the most exorbitant of any that has been manufactured for many a
long day, rests, is utterly untenable, and, of course, the demand should be
at once repudiated. At the same time a little care is needed to prevent
surprise, for in those cases in which a house or an apartment is taken by
agreement for any length of time, the legal document which binds the
contract may contain a clause to the effect that the tenant is expected to
pay the extortionate sum which we have named in case of death occurring
from consumption, and we notice the matter that the profession may put
clients on their guard." The Lancet,

The leper's dog was believed to carry ih.Q germs of disease.

What are these germs, for they are said to be the cause of
<;ommunication of disorder both in man and beast? Is the
language figurative only ? Then let me quote what was said
by Liebig twenty-seven years ago. He was a chemist
''
T\\Q?,Q, figurative expressions^ with which we are so willingly

" and easily satisfied in all sciences, are the foes of all
" inquiries into the mysteries of nature they are like the ;

" ^fata morgana,' which show us deceitful views of seas,

''
and luscious fruits, but leave us languishing
fertile fields,
" when we have most need of what they promise."*
But it is said there is no figure of speech in the matter.
These germs are vital, wganic, and organised. It is true
that in looking after them. Dr. Beale^ with a lens which
magnified upwards of 2,500 diameters, and which was said
to make a child of three years old as big as Mont Blanc,
could see nothing of them. Dr. Angus Smith, ''
pretending
" to no knowledge, such as is required of a man who treats

• Chemistry in its applications to Agriculture and Physiology. Edited from the

Manuscript of the Author by Lyon Playfair, Ph. D.F.G.S., 1843. R. Hon.
C.B., F.R.S., LL.D., (Edinburgh and St. Andrew's Universities), Chairman of
Ways and Means, and Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, &c., &c., &c.
 :

16

" disease, but who .speaks as a clieminf,'^ found himself

" unable to proceed because of and requested the
otlicr duties,
*•Commission ("Cattle Plague Third Report") to seek the
" aid of Dr. Crooks, F.R.S.," and he has decided that
" the prodigious procreative power of tlie original particle
" (of infectious disease) belongs only to the nature of an
" organised germ, capable of producing multiples of itself by
a process of nutrition and subdivision ;" and Dr. Letheby
informs us, that the germs or molecules are 100,000 part of an
inch in diameter.
Now, as for the microscopic examination, it was made
without result by Liebig, as I have already stated, twenty-
seven years ago. and it seems with no better luck now by Dr.
Beale and others. As for the vital germs —
" The
best definition of life involves something more
" mere reproduction, namely, the idea of an active
tlian
" power exercised hy virtue of a definite form and production^
and generation in a definite form. By chemical agency, we
^''

" can produce the constituents of muscular fibre, skin and

" hair, but we cannot form by their means an organised
''
tissue, or an organic celV^ —Liebig.
To generate life, life must precede it.

Nature works hy uniform laios, anil the laAV of disease and

its communication as laid down by the medical officer, and
promulgated by the Privy Council, is that each disease had
originally its parent from which it has descended as regularly as
dog from dog, and cat from cat. A dog cannot breed a cat, nor
a cat a dog. '^
To talk of testing spontaneous generation, is as

if one talked of sp)ontaneous combustion amid a co7itinuous dis-

charge of fireworks.''^ Tliis illustration is not very ]ia])py.

Spontaneous ignition constantly takes place under circum-
stances apparently adverse. Hay-ricks take fire by moisture,
and recently a house was set on fire by water. Some lime
was placed in the attics for rojiairs to tlie roof, rain entered,
slaked the lime, and spontaneous ignition followed.
But what liave "tlie two or three gentlemen connected
 17

" with tlie Boanl of Health, of great scientific attainments,

" who have pretty well ascertained the nature of all diseases,
''
whetlier contagious or infectious/' been about, to allow sucli
a theory as that of vital germs proceeding from putrid matter,
to remain uncontradicted? It is making corruption put on
incorruption and for an unworthy object. What have the
bench of bishops been about, what have the clergy of Great
Britain and Ireland been about, in their learned leisure or
active duties, that they do not protest against this mode of
dispensing with the necessity of a Creator? It is scarcely
necessary to state, that the wonder of creation does not consist
in the size of the animal. There is no more difficulty in
making a whale or an elephant, than one of those minute
creatures of which it is said :
—
" Great fleas liave little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,
" And they again have other fleas, and so ad infinitum.''

In the Assyrian bas reliefs, the Warrior is the biggest

man. The biggest man is not always the best man in
these days.
The seclusion, isolation, &c., in the story of the Leper of
Aosta, to avoid danger to the public health, is recommended
strongly by the Medical Officer of the Privy Council, at the
end of a Report " On Diseases prevailing, or said to be
prevailing, in the North of Europe," but which had, in f\ict,
nothing communicable about them.
" The very alarming rumour which excited his Lordship's
(President of the Council) vigilance," caused two gentlemen
to be employed, at a cost of £396 15s., on a mission to
Russia, for the purpose of investigating certain diseases,
Meningitis spino-cerebralis for one. The conclusion, how-
ever, arrived at, was that, because no danger Avas to be
apprehended, therefore a system of inland quarantine would he

very desirable.
" Such reasoning falls like an inverted cone,
AVanting its proper base to stand upon."

" Have you a strawberry mark on your arm ? No ! Then

B
 18

come to my arms, my long-lost child I" This is ^Yhat is

meant by being, " on the safe side " and how many follies and
;

cruelties are committed on this It was

side? tlie safe side
on which the Priest and the Levitc passed. It is the safe

side that is advocated in a letter signed, rather equivocally,

J. 0. 11, in the ^' Pall Mall Gazette," August 18th, 18G6,
during the cholera visitation. Lludcr the head of " Village
dangers," the writer says they have everything they can wish
for in the way of medical attendance in his village —nurses,
comforts, &c., hut the poor people will visit each other in
affliction, and say, " I am not afeared, and I like to be
neighbourly." Job is "afeared" of a sickly child in a peram-
bulator, and anticipates that disease and death will follow in its
wake. He hf.s kindly spared us the recital of what followed.
Many travellers may recollect our Consul (Mr. Cartwright)
at Constantinople some forty years ago. He had the ijlague^

and underwent the ''lodgment and seclusion" advocated by

the Privy Council. But of all the horrors of his experience,
when his friends died around him, and Avhen passing his
hand over his body he felt the fatal lump under his arm,
there was one trial greater still reserved for Iiim, and that
was when he returned into the town, convalescent, and per-
fectly free from taint of disease, longing for the society of
which he had so long been deprived, and to which he con-
tributed so much as he walked down the streets, he saw his
;

friends passing on the safe side. AVhat has become of the

])lague? Eothen was in the midst of it. lie survived, but
the plague is defunct, or, at least, it terrors are.*

But let me
give a fact or two illustrative of the action of
quarantine. Supposing that the Vice-President of the Com-
mittee of Council on Education was not entirely correct in
saying, " Quarantine was instituted on commercial grounds
alone/'

• I revoke this statement. Its terrors are not defunct. The so-called Astrachan
Pl;i"uc hashad its commercial as well as political t.^rrors and '^anic fears to suit
Russian diplomacy and a British nobleman.
 19

Take the case of

A CHOLERA SHIP OFF SYRA.

" A few very few, before the steamer's time had expired, a ship
(lays,
arrived from Alexandria which actually had the cholera on board. Twenty
or more had died and were thrown overboard on the voyage, as we after-
wards learned, and several more were sick. As she came into the quaran-
tine anchoring-ground and cast anchor she dragged some distance, and
seemed in a fair way to drift against the armed cutter which was doing
duty as ijiKO'da-costa and capo-ijuardiano. The brave fellow (I hope he
wasn't a sailor) ran out his guns, and prepared to sink the ship and all on
board, lest she should come into contact with him. That scene is one I
can never forget and hardly ever forgive the huddled passengers driven
:

on deck by the pestilence and heat, and, doubtless, already in a frenzy of

fear from the perils within, found themselves met on the threshold of
deliverance from their awful fellow- voyager by the open mouths of Greek
carronades. Women shrieked and men howled with fright all prayed, ;

supplicating the gods and the captain the i/uanla-costd people were in a
;

—
worse panic, if possible shouted orders and counter orders, ran out a gun
and ran it in again, threatened, prayed, and cursed, as though doom was on
them. This horror of the cholera seemed to have become a madness in the
Greek mind. Our sailors gave the wretches the benefit of much good and
strong English, which, I fear, was sadly wasted, and would have been equally
so had it been equally good Greek, but I noticed that our guanliann was
stricken with fear at the bare idea of the vicinity of the infected ship.
What the extent of the contagion was we knew not, of course but the ;

hurrying and trepidation of the people on board and in the boat which
came alongside made it evident that something unusual was going on.
The boat lay far off, and the officers shouted very loudly and we heard;

afterwards from the quarantine boat that there were four or five dead of
cholera on board, whom they wanted to send on shore to be buried, but
this was refused as dangerous then to be permitted to sink them in the
;

sea— this was still less to be allowed. They begged for a doctor no one —
would go (juardiani even would not go on board, for any compensation,
;

and they rowed away, leaving her to her fate. We shortly after received
an intimation that by reason of this new arrival all ships in quarantine at
that time must stay fourteen days more Here was the ship of the
—
ancient mariner, in sooth anchored only, but with anchors almost useless
on that tranquil sea, the fiery sun above, and the glassy water below, and
nothing to'l)reak that awful monotony but the merciless quarantine-boat
coming to ask and refuse. We could see the people on the ship gather on
the forecastle and in the rigging, looking out to the land, which, brown
and dry as it was, was to them a refuge. The second and the third day
came, and the dead multiplied, until ten or a dozen corpses were on board.
Still no physician, no landing, no burial even and the plague stricken
;

ship and its dying cargo lay still under the August sun. The third day the
crew received permission to put the bodies overboard, tied with ropes, that
they might not drift away and carry to some accursed Greek community
the plague it merited. I may be unjust, but those days have made me
detest and al)hor the vei'y name of Syra and its people. We saw the dead
lowered overboard, one by one, and with glasses could see them floating
alongside, horrible to sight and fixncY.'"--C'ornhill Maijaz'uie for February,
1800.

B 2
 — —

20

But they rather ovcrtlo the thing in Greece, while they

are too lax in Turkey. We shall find common sense in
America ; and this is how they perform

QUARANTINE AT NEW YORK.

" have already called attention, with some warmth, to the manner
We
ill whichtlie sick were removed from the Virginia to the hospital ship
Falcon. The furmal report on this matter rendered yesterday by Dr. Daltun
to the Board of Health will, if we are not mistaken, cause pufilic indi<,'na-
tion to turn iiercely against whoever is to blame for this stujtid and cruel
proceeding. Nothing in heartlessness, laziness, indifference, and want of
contrivance in the history of Turkish and Oriental (juarantines ever sur-
passed this. Here, as I)r' Stone remark.s, comes into port, a poor devil of
'

a captain, with a pest-house under his command, and he dare not move
here or there lest he should violate some law, and nobody is there to tell
him what course to pursue. So a thousand human beings are imprisoned
many hours longer than they need be, in the midst of death in its most
fearful forms.' For thirty-six hours this floating pest-house lay without
succour or message fmm the shore; the steerage was crowded with the
sick and the dying, and the dead towed in boats at the stern. These hundreds
of poor men and women, thus f >rced to cling to what they considered a
charnel-house, without proper medical aid, are constantly on the verge of
riot and mutiny, in order to force their way out from the poisonous ship.
The first supplies that came from the shore, we are assured by a passenger,
were three barrels of saw-dust When at length the sick are to be removed,
!

there is no steamtug or proper means of transference. The poor dying

emigrants are tied into a rude seat made from a hogshead and lowered
front the yardarm, under the hot sun, after much difliculty, into one row-
boat, and then again hoisted into the Falcon. Tliree persons on an average
are thus transferred in three-quarters of an hour. One poor woman died
during the process, and no doubt the majority of the others died afterwards.
It forcibly occurs to the quarantine i>flicials that this is a very slow and
cruel process, and on the urgent representation of the sanitary superin-
tendent of the city, they condescended to request the captain to assist them
with tlie shii)'s boats. W'a cannot wonder that after this performance the
cholera raged fearfully in the hospital ship. .There ought to be some
.

place where, after the weary voyage, the quarantine jiatient can step on
shore, and where the poor steerage passengers can escape the effluvia and
])oison generated in those close holds after a long crowding of human beings
together." Xcir York Tiincf, Mai/, 18G6.

Here, however, is the true balm of Gilead :

" officials of New York are furnished with small

The Custom-house
vials,containing each an ounce of some greyish cholera mixture, with
which they immediately dose each person, sick or well, who arrives in that
port."— /^a// Mall Gazette, August ith, 1866.

This is acting on the safe side.

But, how do wc act in England with regard to the

cholera? In his 8th Report, the Medical Officer of the Privy
 — —

21

Council saySj '•

I have no hesitation in asserting that England
ought by Quarantine." The infect iveness of
to resist cholera
the disease belongs to the dejecta of cholera patients, " which
acquire tlieir maximum of infective power, while undergoing
decomposition." The ''Pall Mall Gazette," writing in May,
1866, has this article, anticipating by two or three months
the Report.

QUARANTINE FOR CHOLERA.

" The Post' trusts that the Order in Council for placing the Helvetia'
'
'

in quarantine at Liverpool may not be, and may not he construed to be, an
indication of any disposition to return to the system on the part of this
country. In truth, the time of quarantine has passed away. It is now
recognized that of all methods of preventing the spread of infection none can
—
he more unwise as undoubtedly none can be more ungenerous than to —
intensify the disease where it already exists by keeping the victims shut
up together in the narrow walls wherein it hrst appeared, debarred from
all the chances of recovery that the succour of the rest of the world can
give, and at the same time to condemn those of them not yet infected to
the peril of a forced contact with those — —
and those only who are already
suffering from the infection. The mental torture of such a situation might
well be enough to induce disease even where there was no predisposition to
it. Quarantine regulations have been and are disappearing, one by one,
from the statute books of all enlightened European nations. The public
mind is apt to take very sudden and somewhat unreasoning alarm on
matters of this sort, and there does not appear to be ground for indulging
in panic at present but at any rate, if it should hereafter appear that the
;

cholera is to be expected —
of which we shall certainly have good warning
—
from the Continent it would be the wisest plan to render compulsory the
erection in every considerable seaport town of hospitals such as that at
Liverpool, where the sick can be properly attended, and have at least all
those chances of recovery which human skill and care can give, instead of
seeking to resort to the barliarous system of cutting oft' from them all
chance of recovery by keeping them cooped up together, and cut off" from
proper succour, in the narrow limits of their vessel. As regards the
'Helvetia,' the Tost' thinks the Privy Council have acted with prudence
'

and discretion, and trusts that they will not be induced to do more than
that, at any rate, in order to meet the fears which are so easily excited
upon slender grounds, and with so much difhculty allayed." Pall Mall
Gazette, May, 186<J.

The '•
safe side,''' however, was taken at Liverpool.

" The National Steam Navigation Company have resolved to burn all
the fittings and the beds on board the Helvetia at once, and also those
'
'

on the '
War Cloud and Jesse ]\Iunn,' as soon as their occupants are
'
'

removed. The emigrants' luggage has been landed and handed over to
them. All the vessels will be thoroughly fumigated." Times, May \7th,
1866.
 —

22

Wliy was this pestilent young woman allowed to go at

large, " not afearcl and liking to be neighbourly?"'

" Among the emigrants at Birkenhead there is a young woman, about

twenty-live or twenty-six years of age (a German), who can speak the
English language. This young person, without hesitation, oftered her
services nut only to interpret, but as a nurse, and in both these capacities
she acted until the appuintmont cf a regular interpreter and a staff' of
nurses. Her noble and disinterested services on behalf of her suffering
countrymen having become known in Birkenhead, a number of benevolent
persons raised a subscription, and on Tuesday Dr. Robertson, the Medical
Officer of Health, as their medium, presented her with about £10, and
informed her that it was intended to give her a gold watch, bearing a
also
suitable inscription, as a reward for her exertions to alleviate the sufferings
of her fellow passengers in a strange land." Times, Mmj
11 th, 186(>.

I recollect an analogous case occurring (with different

results) during a cholera visitation in Rome. A young
surgeon went about doing what he could to benefit his

townsfolk. The report spread that he was disseminating

the disease. The people rose, and tore him to pieces in
the ])ublic streets, to he on the safe side.
But here is another case for condemnation (?) : The Cottage
Hospital, North Ormesby, Middlesbrough.

"REGULATIONS FOR PROBATIONERS AND NURSES.

" 10. To attend the sick, both poor and rich, at hospitals or private
houses, by night or by day. After eight weeks" attendance upon int'ccliutis
cases the nurse must return, or be exchanged for another."

In the " Pall Mall Gazette" of August 25th, 18()G, will

be found a letter, signed Forbes Wiuslow, M.D., ''

On the
Depressing Passions in Relation to Cholera,"
I will take the liberty of adding, that it is a common
tradition, in the Iionio of the King Cholera., that he was met
coming out of a village in which a number of deaths had
occurred, and was accused of being the cause. He stoutly
denied the charge, adding, that lie had only killed one, while
fear had killed tlie rest.
It has been said, too, with some truth, as I venture to
submit, that King Dirt and King Drunkenness have often as
much to do with di.-^ease at home as the arrival of the parent
disease from abroad. At any rate, the stiggcstion is worthy
 —

23

of consideration. At Mauritius " the most stringent qiiaran-

" tine regulations are in force, but sanitary regulations in the
" town are overlooked. The Coolie population is dirty in
" the extreme."
But as I do not affect originality, I shall do best by giving
the following extract from aSouthampton paper of December
15th, 1866. I have refrained from mentioning names, or I

could have adduced the authority of men of great practical

knowledge (at Southampton and elsewhere), who have written,
conclusively, as I think, on the non-infectious nature of the
cholera and yellow fever. The latter is now admitted at
head-quarters.

" CHOLERA AND YELLOW FEVER.

"As the question of the contagiousuess and possible importation of
such diseases as the above has recently formed the subject of discussion in
our columns, our readers will doubtless be interested in the perusal of the
following extracts from a very able work recently published by Dr.Shrimpton,
of Paris, upon Cholera'
its Seat, Nature, and Treatment.'
; Having quoted
the opinions of several eminent physicians of the Indian Army, together
with a number of irresistible facts adduced by them to show the non-
contagious character of cholera, Dr. Shrimpton says :

"
When we see the disease breaking out on the same day, September 19th,
1865, at Cette, Aries, Aix, and Courbevoie on October 1st, at Nancy and
;

St. Cloud the 5th, at j\Ielun ; the 6th, at Caen and St. Germain ; appearing
;

simultaneously at distances so great from each other, how is it possible to

prove that contagion spreads gradually frum commune to commune, from
'

house to house, from individual to individual V No, the disease is not

propagated in this way. Not only does the disease appear suddenly in
persons the most distant from each other, but one or more persons may be
attacked at the same time in a family, in a house, or in a public establish-
ment. No one has ever seen cholera transmitted fron one individual to
another. Cases are well known of children that had bee :i suckled by their
mothers affected with cholera until the last moments of their existence,
without having taken the disease; Again children at the breast that have
died of cholera have not given the disease to their mothers {de la Berge et
Monnerct CoiujU'iidiuiu, page 272).
"If we were now asked what was our personal opinion on the manner
in which cholera is propagated we would answer as follows the disease is
:

not propagated by contagion, by infection, by poison, or by any emanation

from the bodies of cholera patients.
" Everything in cholera seems to preclude the idea of contagion ; there
is no period of incubation, no virus, no miasma even the nature of the
;

disease itself, its seat, and its mode of propagation are quite opposed to all
the principles of action of contagion.
" A^o infection. —
Where are the ferments, the effluvia, the miasmata of
cholera'? No one has ever discovered the least trace of these mephitic
 —

24

gasos, of those iiiicrozo:iii\'S, of which there has been so much talk. The
atmosphero has not the least been infected with antiscjttics and preparations
<it chlururcs, A'c,
under the pretext uf destroying these supposed microzoaires,
and neutralising the supposed gases, of which there never has been the
least trace discovered. Finally, have we not seen, and do we not every day
see, that cholera respects the most unhealthy jdaces, and devastates others
which are in the most perfect sanitary condition '.

—
" -Vo poison. We cannot help saying that in the embarrassment of
finding a means of propagation for cholera, and being determined that
there should be one, the contagionists have been obliged to declare that
there is poison, but the presence of this jioison has never been shown, nor
its nature explained.
''
—
\o ciinnift/ion. There is no emanation from the bodies of cholera
patients ;this would be equally impossible during life and after death.
''
])uring life the bodies are dried up and are coM, even below the
temperature of tlie surrounding atmosphere the laws of chemistry as well
;

as the laws of life are suspended, the very breath is cold —

icy cold. Under
such circumstances it is very evident that there never could be any
emanation.
" After death the bodies of cholera patients do not immediately enter
into decomposition, for after the cessation of the disease by death, the
animal heat which could not be obtained during life, returns to the body
for a short time, and thus prevents immediate decomposition. It is evident
then thut the bodies cannot produce tliose fetid emanations so much dreaded
from deaths from zymotic causes.
—
'''Mode of jirojiit'jtitio)! and ctiuliK/i/. If cholera Avore a contagious
disease, we should be able easily to follow its course from jilace to place,
from date to date, to show how it was imported by Arab jdlgrims.' and
'

even that it •came by the fresh water canal from Fell-el-Keber by the
iiiarket-W()men.' But as such is not the ease, our task is much more
diflicult we shall have to follow it in all its meanderings, its erratic
;

course, without any guide, in the liope of discovering something of its mode
of ])ri)pagation and its etiology.
"The disease always makes its api)earance in diflerent distant parts of
a country at the same moment, frequently even before it has visited the
neighbouring countries. It is impossible to trace out its direct mute. It
leajis fmm north to south, from east to west, in every direction, and often
to immense distances without to\u'hiiig the intermediate country.
" It is impossible to establish the filiation of the disease when it declares
itself suddenly in a city, in the centre of a country, where there has not
been one single case of cholera. Ca«es occur at the same instant in jilaees
not only the most distant from each other, but also without any possible
connnunication between the ])atients ; in the cells of jirisons, in convents,
in hospitals, il'c, »V'c., in the most healthy as well as in the most unliealthy
places ;amongst all classes of society, the rich and jioor the valid and the
;

invalid. Thus this terrible disease apjjcars to us to break through all the
laws tliat contagious diseases are subject to.
"Is it not then most unreasonaliie to inflict the rigours of quarantine
laws on nations, to interrupt the intercourse between people, and to create
terror, which never fails to s])read the disease /

''
Then as to the suj)posed ellicacy of disinfectants. Dr. Shrimpton thus
expresses himself :

" With regard to disinfectants, as a preventive measure, we reject them

altogether. All the cxpcrimeuts which Lave bccu abuudautly tried have
 — —

25

sufficientlyproved their tliorougli iiicfficacy. The fumigations of chlorine

would appear to be not only inefficacious, but really injurious, all the men
'

employed in some laboratories in the preparation of this substance (chloride

of lime) died.' {Cholera Morhu.^, Fabre, p. 222}. The enormous quantity
of chlorate of lime which is found in every corner of the streets of Paris,
serves only to infect the atmosphere and frighten the people. There is
nothing in cholera to disinfect, and under all circumstances, there is but
one absolute disinfectant, and this is cleanliness.
Dr. Shapter, of Exeter, had ]n-eviously given ])ublicity to very similar
opinions with respect to yellow fever, in one of the original dissertations
contributed by him to 'The System of Practical j\Iedicine.' Therein he
expresses himself in favour of the theory of non-contagion, and says :

'
From what has just been said upon the causes of this fever it may be well
understood that we should not be inclined to estimate among its preven-
tives the system of separation entailed by the quarantine laws, with their
train of hardships and inconveniences. * * '' * Experience has
shown that very little reliance is to be placed upon the disinfecting mix-
tures that have been proposed with the view of altering the constitution of
the atmosphere, and by this means destroying the malaria which may exist
in it.'
"We commend these opinions to the attention of the authorities who
have recently enforced quarantine regulations at this port to an almost
unprecedented extent and at the same time we would respectfully suggest
;

that they might be combated, if possible, by those who proclaim their

belief in contagion and disinfectants."

''
The water cholera theory
of the Pvegistrar-General is not yet accepted
by scientific men
as proved, for a good many reasons, of which we shall
probably hear more as the more deliberately worked out reports of the
medical officers of health and the special commissioners of the Privy
Council are completed and published. ^Meantime it has been a matter of
difficulty to merely practical and unscientific persons to understand how,
amongst a pojiulation of whom a very small proportion ever drink unboiled
water, the cholera should be so widely si)read by that agent. "Will the
jtrevalence of adulteration help to solve the difficulty ? Beer, we all know-
to be largely adulterated with unboiled water, and London milk equally or
more so. Even country milk, it appears from a statement in a medical
contemporary, is not free from admixture with water drawn from surface-
Avells suspiciously near to cesspools, and dungheaps, and drains. "We have
no hope of stopping tliis sophistication but may we appeal to the con-
;

sciences of the adulterators —

or such remnants of conscience as may be
—
presumed to be in their possession to boil the water before they adulterate
our beer and our milk ? It would, perhaps, be too great a stretch of indul-
gence to expect that it should be filtered through charcoal." Pall Mall
Gazette, December, 1866.

And the Ecport of the Elvers' Commission, May Gth, 1867,

gives very poor encouragement to the water-poisoning theory.
But, interesting as is the subject of cholera, I must leave
 26

it for another Question in the House on scarlet fever, June

IStli, ISGG*
"SCARLET FEVER.
"Sir J. Jervoise asked the Vice-President of the Committee of
C.
Council on lilducation whetlier his attention had been directed to the state-
ment of the medical officer of the Privy Council (First Report, Cattle
—
Plapne Commission, p. 46) 'AVe constantly see in our practice that the
physician carries home scarlet fever to his children without taking it him-
self, carrying the infection in his dress or about his person;' and what
measures were contemplated to arrest this source of danger to the public health?
" Mr. Bruce said that the Government did not sec their way to any
eflective legislation on this subject at present."

The Question implies such carelessness on the part of a

profession " that has pretty well a.gccrtained the nature of
all diseases," that we can only hope the statement is in-
correct. That it is so, we may conclude from the " Report
''
of the late Epidemic of Scarlet Fever among Children at
" Aldershot Camp, April 20, 1866," from which the follow-
ing is an extract, given to the Vice-President of the Council
on Education, on notice of the following Question, ]\Iarch

26th, 1867 :—
" INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
" Sir J. C.Jervoise inquired of the Vice-President of Council on
Education whether his attention had been called to the report of the com-
mission on yellow fever at liiTmuda, 18.5(5 report of committee on yellow
;

fever at Bermuda, LsG4 report df the late epidemic of scarlet fever among
;

children at Aldershot, ISGG and what conclusion was to bo draAvn from

;

these reports as to the infectious nature of the disea.ses referred to I

" Lord R. ^IoNT.\(;u said that he did not think that these reports led
to any novel conclusions as to the infectious character of diseases."

" No nurse nor mother was aftected.

" Dr. Barry can give no information as to the manner of
" the introduction of the di.^casc into his family.
" lias no reason to suppose he conveyed the infection
" into any other family he attended. ^Mothers and other
" relatives Averc admitted to see patient.'', and to go back-
" wards and forward.^, yet in no instance was disease known
" to be conununlcatcd in this way."
* When the Jews were ]H'rs(.'ciit(l, vill.ngcs plundered, old and yoiing drrnvned in
tho Danube, a represenUition was made by Lord Stanley to M. Br.itiano, at the time
Minister to Prince Charles of Uoumania. His reply was that thev were vagabonds
who spread Cholera.
 ;

27

How comes it that medical men, not named, carry scarlet

fever in tlieir clothes while they themselves are unaffected,

and yet that a medical man, whose name is given, v/ho had
the disease before him, " with an opportmiity rarely occurring
''
of attempting to trace the history of scarlet fever in its
" progress tln-ough a given population," could not, by any

possible means, detect its infectious qualities ?*

We already are informed that the infectious nature of
yellow fever is negatived, but the reports, such as that of
which I gave the extract above, did not lead the Privy
Council " to any novel conclusions as to the infectious cha-
racter of diseases." TJic profession have decided that their
members, knowingly, are constantly carrying home to their

children scarlet fever. To how many of their patients, then,

must they have communicated the disorder before doing so
to their own The number is only limited by the
families ?
daily arrangement of their visits. The country practitioner
can make no such arrangement. " First come first served:"

he carries on for the rest of the day a hodge podge of disease,

escaping miraculously himself. In reply to my Question on
this subject, in 1866, the Vice-President of Council on
Education did not see any way to legislation on this subject.
Leprosy, consumption, yellow fever, have ceased to be
considered infectious^ unless bad air is meant by the term
but a foul well, a sewer, will kill those who enter it, and so
did the Black Hole at Calcutta. A long course of breathing
foul air is admitted to be the cause of typhus, or typhoid
fever. No germs are required for this. If disease originates

spontaneously in one case, it may in all, and no proof

can be found of its subsequent spread by infection, sup-
posing always that the definition, as given by me, be
correct. Quarantine will be useless if this proposition be
true. That it is kept up for other than sanitary purposes is
admitted. Commercial interests are- involved in its main-

* A review at Aldershot was put off in consequence of Her Majesty the Queen
being advised of the danger.
 —

28

tenance, perhaps political aldo ; at least I interred so wlien I

saw the anomalous conduct of the French authorities, referred

to below.
THE CHOLERA.
"SiK J. jEiivoifB asked the Vice-President of the Committee of
C.
Council on Educutiou whether the attention of the medical olhccr of the
Privy Council had been directed to a statement in the Morning Star of ' '

the 25th of Octuher, 1865, that the Emperur and Eni]iress of the French
had visited the cholera hospitals at Paris, and that M. Gustavc Uirard had
made experiments in demonstration of the non-infectious nature of the
cholera.
"Mr. r)RrcE said that the medical officer of the Privy Council was
cognizant of the conduct of the illustrious personages in question, whuse
courage and humanity on that occasion had excited such general admiration.
He was also aware of the daring experiments made by M. Girard, who
had placed upon his tongue the moisture of the brow and the fur from the
tongue of a man who had died of Cholera. 13ut, in the first place, such an
experiment only proved the insusceptibility to that disease of M. Girard,
and by no means proved that the experiment might be tried with equal
safety by other persons. Even, if held conclusive on that point, it did not
in the slightest measure invalidate the position taken by the medical
officer of the Privy Council with respect to the infectiousness of that
disease. The hon. baronet had, moreover, overlooked the fact that, as the
French Government Avas at present strongly advocating quarantine pre-
cautions against cholera in the East, it might be presumed that their
medical advisers entertained the same opinion as the medical adviser of the
English Government on the subject of M. Girard's experiments." I'iiitcs,

April 20/h, 1866.

In tlic paper quoted, and on the same side of the sheet,

was the account referred to, in an article headed " Paris,"
in which it was stated that M. Drouyn dc L'Huy.-^ had pro-
posed a Cholera Congres.sat Constantinople. The first notice
of this Congress informed us that the French had suggested
an energetic, course —
namelv, armed ships in the Ked Sea, to
watch Egyptian and Arabian coast and what is still
tlie ;

more extraordinary, England was one of the first nations to

object to this hopeful precaution I I have asked this year the
Foreign Secretary^^ when the Report of the Congress woidd be
distributed ; but though the Congress concluded its labours in
October, 18(;('), and though the public journals have talked
of its Report, it has not ''
reported." The English Commis-
sioners have '^
reported," but the Congress has not " reported ;"

• Lord Staniev. afterwards Lord Derbv.

 29

when tlie "Congress" does "report," then the "Report" Avill

be distributed. I confess, from the first time I read about this

Congress — and it was in a column of the " Star," alongside of
the one which mentioned the Emperor's visit to the Cholera
Hospitals —I have not believed in the sincerity of the pro-
ceeding ;
it struck me as very improbable that the Emperor
of the French would risk his valuable life by exposing him-
self to cholera infection, if he thought it communicable at an
appreciahle distance. Nor would M. Girard have placed on
his tongue matter taken from cholera patients, if he thought
it communicable an inappreciahle distance. The anomaly
at
of tlie suggestion for a Cholera Congress did not strike me as
extraordinary, but my suspicions, as to watching the Egyptian
and Arabian coasts, are probably as unworthy as those of
which France complained in 1820-1. A large force was col-
lected on the frontiers of Spain, on the ground of sanitary
precautions. Spain remonstrated France said they were;

unworthy suspicions, and in 1822 invaded Spain with that

cordon sanitaire ? to the cry of " God and St. Louis," there
having been (in Spain) an infectious disorder of a political
character, from the germs of which France was anxious to be
protected, and so " stamped them out." But I am antici-
pating what it is unfair to suppose — namely, that the Cholera
Congress are not anxious to report. So far as we are per-
mitted to know, the English Commissioners have reported,
and their report is openly characterised as " unpractical and
irrational."
The history of small pox in the Small Pox Hospital is

not much known. It is not a Government institution. No

one is likely to volunteer inspection.
" For over all there hung a cloud of fear ;
A sense of loneliness the spirit daunted ;

And said, as plain as whisper to the ear,

The place is haunted."

It will be some consolation, however, to know that for

thirty years no case occurred among the attendants. Vacci-
nation will not secure this, nor inoculation either.
 —

30

Besides, tliere are other places — barracks, camps, s]iips,&c.,

where only a very lax system of quarantine can Le kept up.

We must hope that direful consequences do not always
follow the breach of these observances, that they have not
been found necessary in the case below, on which I will not
comment further than to add that I suggested the possibility
of such an occurrence when the Public Health Bill of 186G
was going into Committee of the House.

"THE SANITARY ACT OF 18GC.

"The Linslade Bench of Magistrates have just made the /Irs I conviction,
under the 38th section of this Act, which enacts that any ])erson suH'eriiig
'

from any (Idiujrroiis iiifectidtis disorder who wilfully exposes himself, without
proper precaution against spreading the said disorder, in any street, public
place, or public conveyance, shall, on conviction of such oftcnce before any
justice, be liable to Ajwiuil/y not exceeding £.3.' It appears the case was
taken up at the instance of the Aylcslntry Board uf (juardmns, who
proceeded under the above clause, against Emanuel Cook, of Wingrave,
under these circumstances :
— Cook had been for some time an inmate of
the '
roH(a</io>is uard,' or 'jusl-h-tiise,' attached to the Aylesbury Union
Workhouse, and was under treatment for small pox by Mr. linlnrl Ceili/,
the medical officer of that establishment. The man had expressed a desire
to go out and see his friends, but Mr. Ceely, being a/ <ijiiitiuu that such an
act would ueitlur /'arilil/ite the patient's recovery nor he conducive to the
public health, strictly forbade his leaving the premises. Regardless of this
veto, however. Cook managed to elude the observation of the parties in
charge of the pest-house, and escaped, proceeding while iu that condition
along the high road, through several populous villages, as far as Wingrave,
where he incauliotishi called at jjcople's houses, and, as they were aware
of his state, set the whole population in a terrible fritjht. lie was taken
back to the workhouse, but rejn'ated his ollence, which led the Guardians,
in the interest of the jiiiblic health, to institute the present prosecution.
The Bench severely commented on Cook's conduct, and as this Avas the first
hnown ease of the\ind wliich had come under the magisterial observation,
he was fiued in the mitigated penalty of 5s., and 12s. Gd. costs. The Bench
intimated their intention on the recurrence of any similar case to impose a
much heavier penalty." Times. Mttij 11//;, 18(57.

And I now hope all the parties, and the country with them,
are not " compromised."
It will be found that public health and public wealth arc
more properly " interchangeable terms " than infection and
contagion; and to seek security from precautions of quarantine
tends only to mislead, and sometimes to generate the very
malady against which it ))rofesses to guard. T avow myself,

then, to be a disbeliever iu infection, and I will siiortly state

 31

the reasons for the want of faith that is in me. Communica-

tion of disease by inoculation is capable of demonstration,
logically and practically ; it is founded on a rock.
and Contagion^ meaning- by the former the com-
Infection
munication of disease at an appreciable, and by the latter at
an inappreciable, distance, by mysterious protoplasms or
germs, which have never been proved to exist, are alike
untenable. Credo quia increddjile is the only foundation I
can 'find for these hypotheses.
It is certain that there were, during the late outbreak in
London and at Southainpton, audacious men who doubted
the infectious nature of the cholera. At a meeting at the
Mansion House a reverend gentleman suggested a mutton
chop and a glass of brandy and water as a remedy, while the
were pointing out poisoned water as the
authorities elsewhere
cause,and (as a preventive) boiling every drop that was
drunk by a population that had scarcely a stick to burn in
the depth of winter towarm themselves with. At Preston
lime-wash and brushes were supplied, instead of the mutton
chop and the streets of London were watered with an
;

infusion of carbolic acid to kill the germs.

An evening paper confesses that to hint at cholera existing
in a provincial town is ruin to it, but adds, that Southampton
should have published the fact, instead of causing danger to
the public by not proclaiming its visitation. It did, however,
mention a clear case of "Asiatic Cholera."

The mate of a ship died tlie day after landing in perfect

health. He had only eaten eighteen eggs and two pounds of
cherries for supper.
To revert to the cholera poisoning the water of a com-
munity. an old belief of the Middle Ages, and the
This is

remedy was to burn a few Jews, which gave great comfort

to those of another creed, and generally the disease was
^^
stamped out ^^
by these means, in a longer or shorter time.
But these were superstitious times. Science works on solid
ground. Science is that which may be taught as well as learnt.
 — —

32

We are taught, and wc ieavn by the statements referred to in

my questions of March 7th, here given. — Question 1, to

Secretary of State for Home Department, and answer.

Question 2, to Vice-President of Committee of Council on
Education, and answer :

INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
" Sir J. C. Jervoise asked the Secretary of State for the Home
Department Avhether the statement weekly report of the Registrar-
in the
General, Novem])er 17, l^fifj, that Dr. Kranklaiid had investigated some of
the physical properties of cholera-stuft" (cholerine) was exactly true; and
•whether it was the intention of Iler Majesty's Government to introduce
any measure tending to obviate the loss, alarm and injustice consequent
on the theory of the infectious nature of certain diseases, when unsupported
by demonstration.
' Mr. Walpole said he would not undertake to say whether the report

was scientifically true but as soon as the notice of the question was put
;

upon the paper, he sent tn the Registrar-General to make inquiries respecting

it, and he (Mr. Walpole) had been infurmcil by him that the report of Dr.

Frankland. who was a very eminent cliemist, was, no doubt, in the appendi.v
to the Registrar-General's report of JS'ovember last, and that he considered
it a very valuable document. Perhaps he (Mr. Walpole) had better read
the paragraph of the Registrar-General's letter, which would be a more
complete answer to the lion, gentleman's question I consider such
:
— '

publication tends to put the public on their guard, with a view to exercise
greater care in destroying what is sup])osed to increase the number of
cliolera cases.' I am ntit aware of any bill upon this subject which it may
be advisable for her Majesty's Government at present to offer to the con-
sideration of i^irliament."'

CHOLERA CONTAGION.
"
Sir J. Jervoise asked the Vice-President of the Committee of Council
on Education whether his attention had been called to the report of the
medical oOiccr <>{ tlic Privy Council (18G(i}, in wliich he states, pp. :50-40,
the mode in which cludera-contagium isg(>nerated whether tiie discoverer
;

had metliod of obtaining that deadly agent

(livulgcil his and. if not, why
;

not ; and whether the annual report of the medical otlicer, which was not
accessible to members till towards the end of July in the last, would be so
at an early period in this Session.
"Mr. CoHRY said the opinions expressed in the paragraph referred to
were not those of a single discoverer, but were the results of the investigation
of a number of scientilic men. With regard to the rei)ort, he could niit
hold out any hope that it would be laid ujion the table mucli earlier than
it was last year."

Dr Frankhand hud been trying experiments with eluilcrine,

''
and science informs us tliat by words ending in *'
ine organic
bases are understood, ^'as morphine, quinine, nicotine, &e., ttc."
The Medical Officer of the Privy Council, too, has been
trying experiments with " Cholera Contagium," and science
 83

tells us that by words ending in ''

urn ''
metallic elements are
named, as potassimn, sodium, magnesium," &c., &c.
We have thus two great discoveries in chemistry. (The
latter was not that of a single discoverer.)
There is a story of an ingenious artist having discovered
the method of rendering glass malleable. On taking it to his
sovereign he was asked whether he had divulged his secret
to anyone and on his replying in the negative, the
else,

despotic him off instantly to execution, for,

ruler ordered
said he, such an invention would supersede the use of all
other materials and cause ruin to thousands. Fortunately we
live under a milder rule ; the former of these discoverers is

not in danger of his life ; nor is it probable that the number

of scientific men will be rewarded. But what becomes of the
answer of the Home Secretary to my
question ? He would
not undertake to say whether it was true or not, but it was
published as a very valuable document tending to put the imhlic
on their guard in dealing with ivhat were supposed to be cholera
cases.

Am I wrong in classing this statement among the pious

frauds we have heard of, asserting what is not true, that good
may come of it ?

That the Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council

should be withheld so long, and at such a juncture as the
present, is unreasonable. No doubt the gentlemen at the
Board of Health " have pretty Avell ascertained the nature of
all diseases ; " but why should we be kept so long in igno-
rance of what is going on there.
Nature acts by uniform laws. " We must get by what
we know, to what we wish to know." Whether I have
picked up a pebble on the shore of the great ocean of science,
or only found a viare^s nest, I leave it for others to decide.

If only the nest, I shall not stand alone. One hundred years
ago Smollett was on the look-out for Halcyon's nests floating
on the sea off the coasts of Nice and Genoa, but he did not
succeed in finding one. He did, however, discover at j\Iont-
 34

pellicr (a place ^vith the name of wliicli everything that is

salubrious is still associated, and at that time celebrated for

the most skilled practitioner in Europe), " a very treacherous
climate, and an ignorant and rapacious quack doctor.''

If it be admitted that the spread of a number of diseases

in man has eiToneously been attributed to infection, may we
not infer that the diseases in cattle arc open to the same
mistake ? It is pretended that the diseases of cattle are best
understood (as they ought to be), by veterinarians, but not
to the exclusion of physicians. Such exclusive dealing would
repudiate the maxim of " Fiat exjjerimentuni in corpore vili,^^

and make vivisection a piece of wanton cruelty. Vaccination

would be relegated to the care, and to the advantage of the
cow-leech. And this reminds me that (in the Third Report
of the Commissioners on Cattle Plague, celebrated for tlie

beauty of its chromographs), there is a portrait of ^Ir.

Hancock's hand, as it appeared after having been inoculated

with the virus of that most terrific disease. The result being
that it was a complete, but simple case of vaccination.
Keitlicr more nor less.
But to the pebble, or the mare's nest.

In the part of the volume, on Fermentation,

second
Putrefaction, and Decay, by Lie big, he suggests that diseases
in the blood may originate by a similar chemical fermentation.
For example, in the process of malting, the sacharine fermen-
tation is set up in the insipid barley. The wort made from
this undergoes the alcoholic fermentation and becomes beer.
This will ao-ain run into the acetous fermentation and turn
to vinegar, and that again into the putrid fermentation and ;

so into decay and dissolution. I have omitted the use of yeast,

because", though it might represent the contagious clement, it
is not necessary for the fermentation of beer, wine, or cider.
These may be regarded as so many diseases occurring
spontaneously, which having passed off, the beer is less likely
to undergo them a second time.
Stmilia simih'bus cura7itur ; and this has been alleged as
 ;

35

a ground for expecting security from smallpox by inoculation

and vaccination; but homoeopathy does not pretend that similia
promiscuously administered in infancy will secure immunity
from similibus in after life. Liebig mentions a terrible dis-
order caused by eating the sausages of Wurtemberg, which
from tlieir composite character, are very liable to ferment
putrefaction taking place in the centre of the sausage, and com-
municating itself to the person who cats it in this state. Tlie
victim is consumed by a fermentation brought about by chemi-
cal action, in which likewise the disease itself had its origin.

But the gas emitted in each of these examples of fermen-

tation, differing entirely from the matter in which it originated,
cannot produce a similar chemical fermentation or disease.
Each process produces its own specific results alone.

The gas which is generated during the fermentation of

beer will suffocate before it will inebriate. Although the
sausage, fermenting spontaneously (if the statement be true)
is the parent of a dreadful disease, it throws out no infectious
vapour or molecule ; no poisonous matter can be detected in
the sausage ;
" boiling water and alcohol destroy it, without
acquiring similar properties.'^ There is no sausagine denoting-
its active principle. " It is equally impossible to obtain such
a principle from the virus of small pox or plague."
What then becomes of the illustration, and the argument
founded on it, by the Medical Officer of the Privy Council,
when he says that diseases descend as regularly from a
parent as dog from dog and cat from cat, and that would it

be as irrational to look for the spontaneous origin of any

disease, as it would be to look for spontaneous combustion
during a discharge of fire-works. According to this theory
we must look for the cause of the cold caught in a damp
bed to the damp person who has slept in it. " When a
" known cause produces the same action in all cases sub-
" mitted for examination, we must revert to the same cause
" in considering the same actions in cases not examined, for
" we have no right to assign to it a new cause, in order to save

c 2
 — — ——

36

" us tlio trouLlc of a clo.^ov invcistigatlon."' Lielig. But

" we must get, tlirough facts that we know, to tliose wc want
" to know."— .IM.
In the year 185G-57, papers relating to the history and
practice of vaccination were presented to both Houses of
Parliament. The writer (\\x. Simon) states that " lymph,
''
under the influence of air and moisture tends, like other
" dead organic matter, to putrid decomposition," &c., &c.

Used in this state, it produces the same effect as that which

occurs sometimes in the dissecting theatre to the surgeon
who wounds himself in the operation. The disease which
follows (dangerous though it he) is not communicable,
"unless it be by similar process." In the Appendix to

these Papers will be found the foUoAving evidence by

Dr. Jcnner :

" Reflecting that the operations of nature are generally uniform, <tc.,

I now discovered that the virus of cow pox was liable to undergo the
progressive changes from the same causes precisely as that of small pox,
&c., the specific quality being lost.
" Here the close analogy between the virus of small pux and of cow pox
becomes remarkably conspicuous ; since the former, when taken from a
recent pustule and immediately used, gives the perfect small pox to the
person on wh(»m it is inoculated but when taken in a far-advanced stage
;

of the disease, or when (although taken early) previously to its insertion,

it may be exposed to such agents as, according to the established laws of

nature, cause its decomposition, it can no longer be relied on as effectual."
Evidence given before a Comudttee of the J/ouse of Conunnns, Miireli 22nd,
1802, //// Dr. .Tenner, pp. 1,2.
l*h-om these facts, we may safely infer that the gas
proceeding from Avhat is termed an infectious disease could not

resist the action of such agents as, according to the established

laws of nature, cause its decomposition.

Wccannot suppose that the emanation from the virus of
small pox or other disease remains unchanged and unchange-
able tlirough all the phases of the disease thus enumerated
invasion, incubation, eruption, desiccation, and desquamation.
It is difticult to imagine, for instance, how, when the dry
skin is peeling oft', in scarlet fever, ''desquamation" can be
"the most dangerous time;" whilst the virus of small pox
loses its activity as readily as is here represented by Jcnner.
AVc may fairly hope that, in the act of ventilating the sick
 37

room, the germs of disease are not sown broadcast over the
land ] for it is absurd to suppose that, with this transformation
of the substance, the shadow of infection woukl resist change.
Well, then, I ''
go by the facts that we know, to those we
wish to know," alw^ays supposing the "vital organised germ"
theory to be a myth.
In the year 1857, the Customs' Report stated that (in

consequence of a contagious and infectious disease having

broken out among the cattle) an order from the Privy
Council prohibited their importation from the Baltic ports,
and ordered that all hides, horns, hoofs, and bones should be
destroyed. The upshot Avas, that a few hoofs were sacrificed
to the demands of a groundless alarm, at a small injury to
commerce, but at a great sacrifice of consistency; for only a
few hoofs Avere destroyed. A great principle Avas involved
in this transaction. Could it be true that the virus of
disease remained in activity amongst these hides, &c. 5 and
if so, why Avere they not all destroyed ?

Shortly afterAvards it Avas proposed to add a medical

officer to the staflJ" of the Privy Council. Mr. Simon Avas
named. I did not knoAv Mr. Simon, but I considered that
one who had written as he had, and quoted Avhat Dr. Jenner
had Avritten, viz., that " nature Avorks by uniform laAvs," and
that " virus exposed to the air will lose its specific quality,"
could never encourage the belief that these hides, hoofs, horns
and bones, &c., Avere disobedient to the laws of nature. For
the future, I thought that, at least, law^s enacted during a panic,
as AA'as the case AAdth the 7th and 8th Victoria, cap. 112, Avill

no longer be enforced by arbitrary poAver unguided by science.

From time to time these laAvs Avere rencAved. At last the
matter Avas brought home to my OAvn door by the outbreak of
small pox in sheep, 1862. It appeared first in Wiltshire, and
our Hampshire house Avas next to the one on fire; but a
great authority in these matters (Mr. Gamgee), said that, like
the cattle plague, it came from Russia. The Customs' Report
of 1863, hoAvever, says " the rumour that prevailed in the
'•
summer Avhen the variola ovina, or sheep pox, broke out
 —

38

" among the sliecp in Wiltshire, attributing it to the foreign

*'
importations, was^ we arc satisfied, oitircly devoid of
" foundation." Mr. Gamgee states that " tlie disease broke
" out about shearing time, both in England and on the
" Continent." The summer was very wet, and one of tlie
eoldest ever known. The grass cut for hay Lay on the ground
soaked with water, but so cold was the weather, that the hay
received little injury. Fruits, if they ripened at all, had no
flavour ; the potato disease prevailed. Arc we then to look
to foreign origin for cause of such a disorder ; and is it

necessary to believe the statement in the appendix to the

Report of the medical officer of the Privy Council, namely,
" that small pox and sheep pox spread entirely through
contagion and infection ; that it is not safe for a healthy flock
to come within 500 yards of a diseased one; that human
''
beings carry the disease for miles, and shepherds have often
" communicated the malady to distant flocks " " that hares ;

'^
and rabbits are subject to this disorder, and may be the
" carriers of the contagion ; sheep dogs certainly can be the
" means of transmitting the virus; " and that " every writer
" of merit in Europe attributes this disease to the introduction
" of diseased animals across the Russian frontier, into Poland,
''
Hungary, Prussia, Pomerania, c*v:c. " and that '' it is a ;

''
malady that never has, and never will originate spon-
" taneously in this country?" Is there no connection between
the outbreak and shearing time ;
driving the sheep to the
wash, wetting them througli in running water, depriving
them of their fleece, and exposing them in this state to the
wet and cold of the summer 1 8G2 ? Is there nothing to be
learnt from the following extract ?

CLErxKENWl'LL
"Mr. AVilliain AVinbey, cattle salesman and dealer, of the Metropolitan
Cattle Market, was sunuiiuned before Mr. Cooke, at the instance of the
secretary of the Ifoyal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,
charj^ed with cruelty to animals l>y cxiwsinpj sheep for sale at the Metro-
jKilitan Cattle Market without jiroper covering, they having been recently
shorn.
" Mr. Rickets, solicitor, of Frederick Street, Gray's Inn Road, instructed
by Mr. Love, prosecuted ; and Mr. Field, Solicitor, of Finchlcy, defended.
 — — —

39

" Last week it was proved that the sheep were exposed in the cattle
market on a bleak, cold, and wet day, the ground being covered with snow,
without any clothing on them, the sheep having been recently shorn. To
prove that the defendant had been guilty of cruelty, Professor Spooner,
of the Royal Yeterinaiy College, was called, and he deposed as follows :

I consider the acts narrated are very cruel, and that the animals must have
suffered a great deal. I have examined meat from animals that have been
so exposed, and have found that it was very much deteriorated. The very
fact of the animals standing with their backs arched, their heads hanging
down, and shivering, would show that they were suffering great pain.
The skin of the sheep is highly sensitive and thin, and the removal of the
wool would expose the nerves. The present practice of shearing sheep in
cold weather is a most cruel one, and ought to be suppressed." April llth,
1867.

And we must recollect that not only were the sheep

exposed to the wet and cold of the season 1862, but the
grass on which they fed was grown under circumstances
adverse to its wholesome properties.
Some ])ractical men do not hesitate to characterise the
disease as that well known (possibly in a milder form) by the
name of Scab, ''
a disorder full of terrors to the flock
masters in Great Britain and the colonies." At the Peel
E-iver, in Government having decided to suspend
1864, the
the operation of the penal clauses of the Scab Act, rendering
the destruction of diseased sheep imperative, and to adopt a
modified course, allowing tlie use of curative measures instead,
" grave doubts are entertained by many flock owners as to
" the disease ever being thoroughly eradicated ;" but in 1865
it is stated, " the disease of the Scab, which at one time

" caused so much alarm to flock owners, has happily abated,

" and the Return of tlie Inspector-General exhibits a great
" diminution in the number of sheep affected throughout New
" South Wales." The remedial measure seems to have been
as beneficial in its operations as the punitive. The example,
however, set hj the mother country of stamping out a disease,
" the origin and nature of which is still unexplained," has
been lately followed by the colonists with all the energy of
youth, as Avill be seen by the following extract referring to

the cattle plague :

 — —

40

"llOCKHAMrTON.
" From our files of Rockhanipton papers, wc quote the following :

" XovEL Imtort. — One of the new arrivals bv the fJrcat Pacific lirought
ashore on Friday a monster Tom cat without submitting him to the
formality of any uflicial inspection. Fortunately, however, fur the ])eace of
the town, !Mr. -Macpherson, the Sheep and Cattle Inspector, seeing Turn on
tlie wharf, and knowing that a late regulation forbids the introduction of
any quadrupeds from Europe, arrested him on the spot, to the intense
disgust of the owner and a large mob of sympathising admirers of Grimal-
kin. The Inspector marched oft' his prisoner at some risk to himself from
the claws of the brute. On returning from the races, on Friday, he found
the owner of the cat and about 50 men and women at his house. The cat
was demanded, and a good deal of threatening language used. The
Inspector, however, was firm, and showed his authority to the belligerents,
who thereupon subsided ami submitted to the fate destined for their
favourite. He was ]»ut into a bucket of water, from which he sprang on to
the inspector's sliouldcrs, ami after a good deal of trouble was finally
drowned in another bucket. He was then consigned to the earth by his
late owner and admirers." Xorthcni Arijus.

In addition to the precaution earned out as above, avc

liave the fact of three canary bird.s being kept in quarantine
at Brisbane, for fear of the Rinderpest from England !

But to return to the infectious nature of the small pox in

sheep ; the question was put in Committee on the Cattle

Plague Prevention Bill, at my suggestion, (for I had not the
honour of serving on that Committee), about the disease being
communicated at the long range of 500 yards. The answer was
that the fact was proved thus :
—" I have had eases in my
'*
experience abroad. You have stock going up to pasture,
" through one road, another stock going up to another pasture,
''
quite distinct from the other, by another road, and these two
" roads being, say, within 400 or 500 yards; and tlic disease
" has been propagated from farm to farm." It will be recol-
lected, that the Ijcap at llhodcs took place abroad. But why
not try an experiment at home? A circle with a radius of
1,000 yards from the centre of infection would allow of the
oOO yards range, and 500 beyond for the sake of security.
Plumstead Marshes would afford space enough,
Tlic disease being small pox, expcrinicuts in vacrinatinn
were ordered by the Lords of the Cuuncil ; the report on the
vaccination of sheep was sometime in preparation (the experi-
ments commencing in October, 1<SG:J, and concluding in
 — —

41

Michaelmas, 1863), and was not delivered till July, 1864. In

Februaiy, 1864, in ans\Yer to my question, the Vice-President
of the Council on Education,* says :

" The experiments

in vaccinating sliccp conclnded last Michaelmas, and
I am
sorry to say the result is exceedingly unsatisfactory. I am also sorry
to say the report is not yet ready to he laid before Parliament. The
framing of that report is in the hands of a gentleman who is not othcially
connected with the Government, and Avho, I think, has taken a great deal
more time than was necessary in its preparation. I am, assured, however,
that it will be ready by Easter. As I am not able to produce the report, I
may state its general eft'ect. The experiments that have been made are of two
kinds. One has consisted in vaccinating sheep with lymph taken from the
human subject, and this has succeeded in some measure. The sheep took
the disease, though in an irregular and abnormal form (laughter), but when
we came to test the value of that vaccination we found that the sheep took
the virus either by inoculation or in the natural manner from other sheep,
so that vaccination thus accomplished appears to be futile. The next plan
was to inoculate cows with matter taken from sheep, in order, if possible,
to produce a vaccine disease in cows which would stand in the same relation
to sheep as cuw-pox does to the human subject. Ihit we entirely failed in
producing that disease (laughter), and therefore the result of the experi-
ments was altogether unsatisfactory." Times, FeJiruary -ZZrd, 1864.

The question is disposed of amidst " laughter.*'

The report, consisting of 27 pages, a greater portion of
which are occupied with the record of previous failures in

1848, concludes " that vaccination is useless, that segregation

" is almost impracticable, that slaughtering and burying of the
" infected animals is justifiable only in the very earliest
''
invasion of the Hock, and in those cases in which the disease
" assumes a confluent cliaractcr, &c." The disease being well
known and all that related to it described by men
in France,

of the greatest eminence more than 150 years since.

That the only remaining conservative measure (recom-
mended by those who believe in infection) is " inoculation,
which if rightly carried out^ offers considercible advantages.''''

And this for disorder communicable

500 yards distance ?
at
In the case of pleuro-pneumonia, we have statements
equally terrible with those which characterise the small pox
or variola, and cattle plague ] the proof of its infectious nature
is demonstrated by the exhaustive argument of the writer to

* Mr. Robert Lowe, now Lord Shcrlrooke.

 —;

42

the Editor of the ''Times," in this extraet on the foot and

mouth disease. May 5th, 1SG3.
I may state in proof of its infectious character, that a neighbour who
recently bought 30 l)easts in a fiiir had the whole of them diseased directly
they reached luime.*
If you think this worth insertion 1 shall feel obliged. I inclose my
card, and am, Sir, yours obediently,
Warwickshire. II. T. C.

A Bill was prepared by Her Majesty's Government,

February, 1864, for further provisions for prevention of
infectious diseases among cattle. It contains this definition :

*'
Contagious or infectious diseases shall be deemed to mean
''
the several diseases mentioned in schedule heretOj and such other
"diseases as may from time to time he declared to be contagious
'^
or infectious hj order of H. M. in Council;''^ a despotic
power to which tlie Privy Council is hardly entitled.
The claim to infallibility is again set up in a Bill pre-
sented by the Lord President to the House of Lords, l-itli

]\Lay, 1867, in these words, " any disease shall he deemed to

" he contagious and infectious, which is from time to time
" declared to he such hy the Privy Council^
The Bill. of 1864 went into committee of the House
before the report of the Select Committee was distributed
butit got so mauled there that the Vice-President of Council

on Education good humouredly remarked, " that although

" he was prepared for a stand-up fight, he Avas not prepared
" to be knocked down at every round/' the Bill was withdrawn
and tlic country deprived of a measure for the prevention of
cattle diseases. Wiiat that means will be learnt by referring
to the Appendix to the Fifth Report of the ]\Iedieal Ofhcer of
the Privy Council. " V^ery startling results are obtained by
" calculating the losses this country has sustained since the
" importation of cattle and of contagious diseases, c^'c."
" Thus the deaths among stock in the United Khigdom
"probably represent an annual amount of inore than si.v

" millions sterling^

* This writer assorts the development of disease as the proof of infection. This
is merely begging the question.
 43

The Bill for the amendment of the law relating to

the importation of diseased cattle and nnwholesome meat
was at the same time Avitlidrawn with all its securities
" for the destruction and disinfection of any animals, or
" parts thereof, of any hay, straw, fodder, and of all meat, and
'
' any article contact with which shall he calculated to produce
;''''
^'disease but while the country was frightened by these
contemplated measures, the borough of Birmingham coolly
talks of pleuro-pncumonia as being caused in many instances
by animals being brought out of warm places, where they have
been fed, and exposed to cold draughts in severe weather in
markets and fairs, and particularly in railway-trucks, when
they are shunted on to sidings for many hours together.
Thus attributing the origin of the disease to spontaneous
origin. " The diseased meat seized is produced before the
"justices, and if ordered by them to be destroyed, it is carried
" to an appointed knacker's yard by a sanitary inspector, and
" boiled down in his presence with horse-flesh and other offal.

" The destruction is so effectual as to prevent its use as

" human food," Avithout regard to its infectious nature or the
consequences.
I may as well make a short extract on the subject of
pleuro-pneumonia, from the Second Report of the Cattle
Plamie Commissioners :
— " 4426. The London dairies are
never free from pleuro-pneumonia for many weeks together.''
" 4427. I think it is the result of unnatural feeding." And
this is the evidence of an experienced person on the subject
of a disease about the foreign importation, and the subtle
and infectious nature of which, together with the poisonous
quality of the meat, &c., nothing less exaggerated was
stated at the period of its prevalence, 1863-4, than in the case
of the Rinderpest, 1865-6-7. We cannot prove non-infection,
but we may show the necessity of sifting the evidence on
which the theory of infection is founded.

In 1865 the Cattle Plague Commissioners began to take

evidence and issued their first report, 31st October, 1865. It
 14

was not, liowevcr, distributed till after the meeting of Parlia-

ment. In looking into tlie evidence on the Steppe Murrain,
I cannot find any of tlie authorities have been in the Steppes.
Mr. ^Murray, our Consul at Odessa (setting aside the .story of
the black spider), says the disorder originates in the hard
usage and hard life the cattle arc subject to, .suggestive of
spontaneous origin ;
and it would be much to be wondered at
(if the description of that country be correct) should the
cattle there escape disease. Tlie extremes of heat and cold,
dust and mud, wet and dry, repletion and starvation, con-
stantly succeed each other, but such natural causes are set
aside for the more wonderful origin of disease by descent,
the process of which is as regular as that by which "dog
breeds dog, and cat breeds cat,'^ as exclusive as that by
Avhich "
;
dog never breeds cat, nor cat breeds dog ''
and
" prospectively we arc able of to predict certain results
" exposure to contagion, as definitely as the results of any
" chemical experiments."
On the 5th February, 1866, the second Report was issued,
in which one of the witnesses states that " he has four or five
" neighbours, some Avithin 40 and 2u0 yards from him,
" who have escaped the plague altogether, whose cows have
''
been mixed with diseased and infected cows. A new stock
" of cows succeeded, within three weeks, the old stock dead
" of the plague, placed in the same pastures in which the
" diseased cows died, trod in their excrement, and were only
" parted from the infected herd by a low hedge." No disin-
fection, no precaution was used, and no evil consequences
followed.
''
That it is difticult to distinguish between plouro-pneu-
" monia and cattle plague ; that a professor was the inspector
'*
who allowed lliem to treat the case when it first broke
" out, in spite of the Orders of Council, with the remark,
'• ' If you cure that cow, it is such a decided case of plague,
" we will give you a j)ension ; '
" and that cow was living at
the time the witnesss gave his evidence, which went to the
cft'ect that he had not got his pension !
 45

Oil the 31st May Third Report appeared '' The pre-
a
—
" paration of this Eeport has, from its nature, devolved
''
mainly on the medical men of the Commission and their ;

" colleagues necessarily rely on them for the soundness of

" the vicAvs expressed in it, on questions of medicine, chemistry,
and physiology." I have already referred to the ill-success
of these gentlemen, except in the case o'l organised germs.
Ireland escaped for a time, but in order to be prepared
for an emergency, in January, 1866, arrangements were
made for sending England proper, qualified persons* to make
to
themselves acquainted with the symptoms, and to observe and
consider the most successful mode of treatment of the cattle

disease. Three professors in London attended the three

gentlemen from Ireland. On the 13th January their
experience commenced. On the 15th they examined
several bullocks, affected with foot and mouth disease, with
the Inspector of the Metropolitan Market. " Very many of
" the beasts in the market had reddened eyes, due probably
''
to injury, or to the irritating effects of the chloride of lime
" in the railway trucks." " We next examined the body of
" a cow which was stated to have died Avith the plague, and
" in so doing found, by the absence of characteristic appear-
" ances, that this was not the case, but that the beast had
''
accidentally perished from an accident to its neck." I
submit that this, though a strong, is not the only case of
mistake that has occurred during the time the Rinderpest
has lasted.
But, in spite of all precautions, the Rinderpest breaks out
in Ireland, in May and no one can account for its
1866,
introduction. Later in the month, " one of the cows pro-
" nounced by the medical inspector to have been affected
" with the Rinderpest was, Avithout doubt, found to have
" died from pleuro-pneumonia,"
" Diseases not unfamiliar have, in consequence of the
" long severity of the season, assumed an aggravated form."

E. G., Dr. Mapother and others.

 46

In June it is announced tliat the cattle disease has broken

out again, " the farmers allege that the disease was conveyed
" by the inspectors themselves."

There is no excuse for this. In September, 1865, the

Lords of the Council directed a document to be prepared by
Dr. Thudiclium on the principles and practice of disinfection.
It Avill be found in the " Times," September 13th, and is
worth readinsr carefully. I want to know whether that
document concluded with the Doxology, and, if so. why was
it suppressed?*

That the cattle plague should break out in Ireland is

extraordinary after all the forewarning and forearming that

country received, and after all the precautions of quarantine,
isolation, segregation, lodgment and seclusion, enjoined or
practiced. I have no proofs that these were excessive, and
that they failed will be urged on the other side as a proof
of how subtle was the disease and how infectious.

But it is to Scotland and Aberdeenshire that we have to

look for the great authority of the infectious nature and method
of stamping out the disease. Aberdeenshire claims to be the
inventor of the principle of compensation. It is, however, in
the years from 1747 to 1749, at which period the cattle
plague invaded Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Cheshire, that
we find Aberdeenshire anticipated in its measures for stamping
out the disease and compensating those who agreed to the
sacrifice of their cattle, as we learn from the papers at
Arley Hall, Cheshire, printed for private circulation, but
kindly supplied to me by the owner. Aberdeenshire boasts
of the marked success attending the measures for the sup-
pression of the cattle plague, and they were recommended
for adoption in England by the highest authority; but after
two months' successful stamping out, on February 5tli, Aber-
deenshire was ?'cvisiled by the plague. ''No idea can be
formed how the disease reached I\lindurno." But shortly

* The Cutth Plapuc uwl Disinfection. See Appendix, p. 52.

 — — —

47

afterwards, the mode of its communication was announced

bj a veterinary surgeon, inspector for the county. It was
a " pack-sheet," which after being removed from the beef
rolled up in it, was thrown aside for some time, when " one
" of the servant girls took and used it (unwashed) as an
" apron, for a considerable ])eriod before the first cow got bad,
" and was carrying kale in it to the cow after it was taken
" bad." The pack-sheet we must suppose was destroyed,
after doing all the mischief, and so the plague was stayed, but
" Aberdeenshire, after a fortnight's freedom from rinderpest, has again
been visited by the phigue, a fresh case having been reported on Saturday
at Peterculter on Deeside, about live miles from the city. Immediate
measures were taken to stamp out the disease, and accordingly the stock
which had been in contact with the first animal attacked, numbering
16 head, have been slaughtered. It is presumed that the disease must
have been carried to the present farm, Oldford, by dung carted from
Aberdeen. Times, Feb. loth, 1866.

Again, on February 22nd, the " Times " reports

" The disease has again appeared in the parish of Foveran. It was
reported by the district constable, as fiir back as the 11th inst., that a cow
on the farm of Hill of Fiddes, occupied by Dr. Ruxton, was observed to be
ill, and was separated from the rest of the stock. On the 14th the animal
was killed and on the following day another cow showed similar symptoms.
;

Mr. Hay, the county inspector, was called on the 17th, and pronounced the
disease to be rinderpest. On tSaturday several of the other animals were
observed to be affected and on Tuesday the committee resolved to have all
;

the stock slaughtered, except the cows in the byres, which will be allowed
to remain until they show symptoms of the disease. The cause of the
outbreak on this farm, which is three miles west from Pitmillan, the last
centre of the disease in the parish of Foveran, is as yet unknown.
Scuts)iian.

On February IGtli, 1866, the Honorary Secretary of the

Aberdeenshire Rinderpest Association, writes to the " Times,"

that it is probable " that in the days of high winds and high
" temperature, with no rain, minute particles of infected matter
" were carried by the wind from the district of Fettercairn,
" scattered in the line of the wind, and took effect wherever
" they found a susceptible subject, which in every case was a
" cow or heifer in calf.
" If we are justified in tracing this outbreak to the infected
" centre of Fettercairn, we cannot resist the conclusions that
" we have in our midst, a disease so virulent that the germs
 :

48

*'
retain their vitality, after being carried by the wind 30 or
" 40 miles, and so penetrating that it finds its way unaided,
" save by the wind; but in the Second Report of the Cattle
" Plague Commissioners, it is specially noticed that the
" disease has travelled commonly in a direction counter to
" that of the prevailing winds."

In the Report from the Veterinary Department of the Privy

Council, March 20th, 18(*)G, the Avritcr (speaking generally
of the unsatisfactory nature of the returns sent in by the
Inspectors) says :
— " the diHiculty there has been in selecting
" anything useful from such a mass of conflicting evidence,
" consisting of more than 10,000 different papers.''
" With reference to the ori(jm of the cattle plague in this
" country, we have not read any evidence of a satisfactory
" and conclusive character. Whether the disease is of spon-
" taneous origin, or whether it has been imported into
" this country, has been the subject of a large amount of
" correspondence, containing most conflicting statements."

As regards "Aberdeenshire," the Report says there had

been eight outbreaks of the disease.
'*
The stamping out in this county can scarcely be said to
''
have been attended with that success which had been
" anticipated. Up to the 30th December the disease had
" existed for 24 weeks, and in that period 2(55 animals wer
" attacked, whilst in Hampshire, where the disease had
" existed for the same number of weeks, and tlie stamjnnff
" out had not been attempted, only 271! were attacked during
" that period and in Devon, where the disease had existed
;

" for 26 weeks, and where the jicroentage of /ciikd is even

" smaller tiiau in Hants, only 1")8 cases occurred during the
" period."— (Scotland).

In the meantime, the Inspector of Constabulary reports

that " the police force of this county (Aberdeen) has been
" very actively engaged, and with considerable success
" several outbreaks of the plague having been immediately
'''stamped out.'" For'y-1\vo extra constables have been
 49

employed to assist the regular constables in carrying out

*'
this duty." While, on the other hand, the Chief Constable
for Hants reports, April 2nd, 1866, " since the 14th January
" only 48 cases have been reported by the Inspectors, and I
" have good reason to believe that many of these were
" improperly classified as cattle plague."

With all its claims to prudence and generosity in

compensating the have from the very first
sufterers, I
considered Aberdeenshire as an example of the great error in
supposing the disease originated in infection from without, or
that it could be *'
stamped out " by any measures adopted
within the county.
In vain did we look for information in the House of
Commons on the second reading of the Cattle Plague
Bill.The cry was^ " don't discuss the disease, but pass
the Bill." One of the Commissioners, however, told us
that the infection was " a question of geography, and not of
traditional jurisdiction." Another, that " the contagion, as
" medical men call it, is not supposed to be anything in the
" nature of gas, but is propagated by very minute molecules
" which float in the air. These are capable of being carried
" by the wind and dro])ped, and picked up again." But the
same Commissioner signs his name to the Report which states
" the disease has travelled commonly in the direction contrary
to that of the prevailing winds;"* and then, having adopted
the theory of molecules, says {ciproj)os to flies), " de minimis

non curat fer."

If we look to the geography of the disease, we ought to

look to the chronology also, and we cannot stop short of the

Ark and i\.rarat. We find a concurrent evidence that wc are
justified in this supposition, in the fact that Mount Ararat is
in the Russian dominions. A cwdon sanitaire drawn round it
would have prevented all diseases. Nothing is too difficult of

belief during a panic. I am content, however, to think that

* Mr. Robert Lowe, now Lord Shcrbrooke.

 !

50

froslimeat and vegetables, tea, and potatoes liave done move

to stamp out disease, and tliat good air, good food, and good

habits, good lodgement, moderation, and cleanliness, which is

next to godliness, will do more to stamp out disease than
even if the Ark liad been placed in quarantine.
As for stopping the movement of cattle to prevent the
spread of disease, because " it is propagated by xery minute
molecules," and at the same time ignoring the danger of flies

acting as carriers of the virus, because the Jaio does not take

notice of trifes, I must observe, that Avhen Newton deduced

his great law of gravitation from the falling of an apple, he
did not say " de minimis non curat lex.^^

There has been many a " grievous muiTain " in the land,
and many a "sore famine." Free Trade has mitigated the
latter and never aggravated the former. At a
visitation,

frightful cost we have been " stamping out " the cattle plague,
for two years, without success. The medicine failed from
thefirst, and so the proposed remedy is to double the dose

I would suggest that this system should be discontinued,

and that the Noachian theory of the transmission of disease
by descent should receive further examination into its

^Etiological pedigree. day may not

Finally, I will hope the
be far distant when we may have something more definite as

to the term infectious disease than that of " any disease

''
which is from time to time declared to be such by the
" Privy Council."
 APPENDIX,

Tlie question is Avliether any disease is communicable from the

nick to the healthy at an appreciable distance? Is there such a thing

as contac/iuin, caused by organised atid specijic germs of disease ?

The preceding pages abundantly pro\'e that none but a negative

answer can be truthfully given.

The late Professor Lay cock, of the Univei-sity of Edinburgh, a

constituent of Dr. Lyon Playfair, suggested the inoculation of

swine and cattle with leprous ])]'oducts to prove infection I Pro-

fessor Owen of King's College, London, trusts that medicine will,

in time, reach the height of a real science.

Infection is a myth. Clrote says, the origin of myths arises out

of the readiness of mankind to accept plausible fclions as absolute

facts. The Royal College of Physicians declares that there is

nothing in the reports from all parts of the world to justify the

segregation of lepers.

"We liA^e," says The Times of October 8, 1874, ''in an age of

" Congresses. We are all interested in Public Health, and unfor-
'•
tunately, are still in this matter too much at the mercy of

" ignorance, stupidity, greed and chicanery."

When ignorance, stupidity, greed and chicanery are removed

in any considerable degree from the highest stratum of the medical
profession, then the cruel superstitions of infection and contagion
by disease-germs, and the mischievous legislation affecting the

health and even the life of the child, the liberty of the father, the

rights of the citizen, and the sacredness of his home, based upon
these chimeras, shall have received their death-wound.

D 2
 52

THE CATTLE PLAGUE AND DISINFECTION.

fl'Vojii "The Times" of Septeynher IZth, l8G5.y

The following document has been prepared by direction of

the Lords of the Coimcil. It is lieaded, "Memorandum
on the Principles and Practice of Disinfection, as apjilicable
Epidemic of Cattle Disease.
to the present By J. L. W.
Thudichum, M.D."

" I.— PRINCIPLES OF DISINFECTION.

—
" 1. The term 'disinfection signifies the removal and destruction,
'

or destniction and subsequent removal of the products of destraction,

of all matters actually being or contaming products of disease capable
of reproducing disease in other animals.
—
" 2. If the same processes and means, as used for this pur-
pose, are applied to the purification and deodorization of places and
things not actually, mfected, but capable or suspected of being
infected, then these preventive measures are practically and pro-
perly included under the definition of disinfection.
—
" 3. The reproducers of the infectious matter or contagion are
all kinds of cattle of the ox tribe, Avhich also are at present in this
country the only animals liable to its specific eflects. It is probable
that the contagion adheres with particular pertinacity to all secretions
and discharges from sick animals. For this reason, fjcces or droi)pings,
urine, ruminated food, all secretions from the mouth, nose and eyes,
iind any sore jmrts of the surfjxce of the diseased animals must be
considered as the principal and pi'imary carriers of the infectious
matter or plague poison. It is also probable that many parts of
animals which have died from the cattle plague, or have been killed
during advanced stages of the disease, are infectious, some because
they are primarily imbued with the contagion, othei-s because they
have been in contact with it after the death of the animal. Skins,
hides, hair, horns, and hoofs must therefore always be treated with
precaution. The chances of infection by flesh, fat, cleaned guts, and
blood are, perhaps, more remote, but cannot be lost sight of.
—
" 4. The cattle plague, although affecting every part of the
 5S

animal, shows itseftects most extensively in the intestinal

visible
canal. It is and apparently upon good gi'onnds, that the
believed,
intestinal discharges are the principal agents, upon the distribution
of which mainly depends the spread of the disoi'der.
" 5. —
It follows from the above that all articles which have been
in contact with a diseased animal, or any of its discharges, particu-
larly its feeces, are capable of carrying the infection for an indefinite
time, and must be looked upon as being actually infectious to other
healthy animals. Such are racks of wood or iron, cribs or mangers
of wood, iron, or stone ; articles used for fastening animals, leather
collars and straps, ropes and chains ; all harness of any animals
used for drawing, and all carts, waggons, and carriages wdiich
they have actually been drawing ; the stalls or sheds in which
animals have been standing ; the whole lengths of the gutters
and drains through which their urine has been flowing ; the entire
surface over which their manure has been drawn, and all implements
with which the removal has been effected the entire dung-heap
;

upon which infected manure has been put, and the fluid contents of
the manure pit or of the special receptacle for the nrine ; yards or
sheds in which cattle have been kept to tread down long straw, and
the whole of such straw and manure, as also the ground beneath
them paths and roads upon which diseased cattle have walked or
;

been carried ; fields and meadows upon which they have been
grazing all carts, carriages, trucks, and railway trucks in which
;

diseased cattle have been conveyed, and all the platforms, railings,
bridges, and boards upon which they have been moved thereto ;as
also all apparatus which has been used to pen, tie, lift, haul, lower
and fix them the clothes, and particularly shoes and boots, and ii'on-
;

pointed sticks of drivers and their dogs the apparel of all cattle-
;

herds or attendants, particularly their shoes and boots ; the shoes

and boots of all persons visiting places where diseased cattle are or
have been standing and in general the clothes of all persons
;

visiting infected j^laces, ships and all parts of the platforms, stages,
stairs, and bridges, hoists and cranes used for enibarkuig and landing
the animals markets, and all sheds and pens and implements used
;

in contact with cattle slaughterhouses, and all persons and imple-

;

ments in them which have been employed ujoon sick cattle, as also
sundry parts or organs A^'hich come from sick animals killed in
slaughterhouses knackers' yards, trucks, or carts, horses, men, and
;

implements which have been emplo3''ed in the disposal of sick or

dead animals wells and ponds from which diseased animals have
;

been drinking, or into which any portion of theii" excreta has had
any opportunity of flowing directly or indirectly all fodder, grass,
;

hay, straw, clover, &c., and particularly remnants of fodder upon

Avlaich diseased cattle have been feeding ; and, in general, all persons,
animals, places, buildings, and movable things which have been in
contact with matters proceeding from diseased cattle, or with
 54

To the abo\e-ii)eiitioiieil places and

bucli clLseased cattle tliciDselves.
tilingsany of the processes and agents enumerated and described in
the following may have to be applied.

"II.— PRACTICE OF DISINFECTION.

— —
"A. JJisinfvction hj Earth. 1. Burying. All mattfi-s that can
be buried, so iis to remain coveied with a thick layer of ground or
earth, are innocuous. The gi-ound chosen for such interment shoidd be
dry. The quickest and cheapest, and most certain way of disinfecting
an animal dead from the plague is to bury it entire.
" 2. —
The drojijiings and all straw and other matters contaminated
therewith may also be buried into ground where they are not likely
to be disturbed for a long time. The places from which such
droppings have been removed to be cleaned and disinfected, as will
be described below.
" 3. —
Manure heaps and the down-truddon manure of cattle
yards, if they have become infected by even a small quantity of the
droppings of a diseased animal, should be carefully shifted to a
suitable piece of ground, and there be transformed into compost
heaps. A
layer of manure one or two feet in thickness should be
covered all over with six inches of dry earth, ashes and mineral
nibbish ; upon this another layer of manure may be placed, and then
again a layer of earth, and so foith, until the whole of the manure
is stacked ; it should be covered all over with a continuous layer of
earth of from six inches to one foot in thickness. If the manure
heap or yard manure cannot be shifted it m.iy be covered on the spot
with a layer of dry earth, after which all jnimals are to be kept
away from it.
" 4. — If the any shed ur stable in which diseased cattle
floor of
has been standing not constiucted with si)ecial Avatertight and
is
imjicnetrablc matei'ial, it must be assumed to be infected to the
tlepth of at least six inches. This ground .should therefore be
removed, together with any stones, pavements, or woodwork M'hich
may have been in contact with it, carted to a piece of dry lanil and
buried. Half rotten wood is a particularly favourable carrier of
infection. Mortar, bricks, loam, or any other lining of the sides of a
pen in which a diseased animal h:is been st;inding should l)e bi-oken
Gilt and Ijuried.
" B. Disinfection hj Fire. 1. JJurniug. — —
All infected articles of
a minor value, or made of imcombiistible materials, can be ilisinfected
by exj)osiiig themwhich will char organic matter, 'i'o this
to a heat
class of articles may
be reckoned racks of wood or iron cribs or;

mangers of wood, iron, or stone leather collars and straps, ropes and
;

chains dry manure, residues of fodder from which diseased cattle

;

Ixiwo eaten and all such small articles of little value which can easily
;

be replaced by new ones. Chains may be exj'oscd to a dull red heat.

 55

All other articles may be heated over a fire of coal, brushwood, or

straw until well scorched. All new articles of ironware should be
bought in a galvanized state to prevent the formation of rust, the
accumulations of which form convenient seats for infectious matter,
and for the same purpose it is desirable that ii'on articles which have
been disinfected by heat as above should afterwards be either gal-
vanized or, at least, Avhile hot, be treated with resin, to cover them
with a durable varnish, or should be varnished or painted.
" C Disinfection by Chloride of Lime. —
Chloride of lime, or
bleaching jiOAvder, is the most powerful, the cheapest, and most easily
managed of all artificial disinfectants. It can be had everywhere,
and at any time, and in quantities sufficient for every purpose. It
should as much as possible be ap]:)lied in solution, of a strength
vaiying somewhat with the jjarticular purpose for which it is to be
employed ; and, after it has been allowed to act upon the surface or
matter to be disinfected a reasonable time, should be washed off,
together with all prodiicts of decomposition. As chloride of lime
does not destroy only the infectious matter in a mixture, but destroys
all organic matter without distinction, it is not ajiplicable to large
quantities of matter, such as the manure of cattle, dung-heaps, &c.,
inasmuch as twice or three times the weight of these matters of
chloride of lime would be required for their etfectual destruction and
disinfection. It is further inapplicable to all matters rich in ammonia,
particulai'ly putrid urine, as it destroys the ammonia and evolves a
large amount of gases, some of which have a repugnant odour, and
are, perhaps, not quite innocuous. But for the disinfection of surfaces
of things and places no better or more suitable agent than chloride of
lime is at present known to science.
" D. Special Directions for the Disinfection of Stables, Sheds,
Vans, Railway Trucks, and Cattle Ships, and of Persons and Things
connected icith them. —
1. After such a place has been cleaned by
mechanical mBans, scraping, &c., as much as possible, and all manure
and dirt has been carefully buried, the entire surface which has been
contaminated, or is likely to have been contaminated, should be
covered with a layer of chloride of lime in poAvder. The powder
shoiild be worked about with a broom until equally distributed. It
is intended to disinfect the water to be used in the washing ]n-ocess
which is now to commence. Clean water from a hose in which it
flows under pressure, or from a force pump, garden engine, or from
large watering-pots, or water-cans, or peured freely from buckets,
should now be applied to the entire surface by one person, while
another at the same time scrul)s the entire sui'face, and particularly
all crevices, joints, and irregularities. The washing water and
chloride of lime are then to be worked down the gutters into the
sinks, cesses, or natural watercourses. No washing Avat(a- from
any infected place or thing should ever be allowed to flow into
any cesspool, iirine-hold, dung-hcaj), pond, sewer, or nat^iral water-
 56

coun;c without havincc previously been mixed and stirred with a liberal
amount of chloride of lime. When the place has thus been scrubbed,
until the water flows off clean, it is ready for effectual disinfection.
" 2— For this purpose a solution of chloride of lime in water, in
the proportion of one pound of the powder to one gallon of water, is
made. For the lair of one animal from six to ten gallons of such
fluid should be ])reparod. This fluid is now distributed over the
whole surface, to be disinfected gradually by squirting from a syringe,
or by pumping through a force-pump, gai'den-engine, or by ^^ate^ing
from a watering-pot or can with a linely-i)ierced rose. All woodwork,
stones, bricks, cement, mortar, all fixtures of whatever material,
should be well wettetl with the solution and immediately be scrubbed
with a hard brush. Floor and ceiling are also scrubbed, and the
whole is left in this wet state covered with the chloride of lime
solution for at least one hour, during which time care is taken that
no parts become dry.
—
" 3. As the chloride of lime and the ])roducts of its decompos-
ing action upon infectious matter may be hurtful to cattle, these
matters have to be carefully washed off by a second and final flushing.
For this too much water and too much scrubbing cannot be employed.
Care should be taken to a})i)ly the clean water always to the higliest
parts, so as to cause it to flow thence to the lower parts, and to wash
away the waste from the lower parts before applying any fresh water
to the upper parts.
—
" 4. Care should also be taken to rinse and flush every broom
which has worked away sediment and waste from the lower ])arts
into and through the gutters and drains before apjdying it again to
the clean upper parts. Care should also be taken that the working
persons should not step fi'om the dirty or i)ai'tially-clf'aned places on
to the clean ones, as this may suffice to bring infection back to the
disinfected place.
—
" 5. Lastly, all persons em|)loye(l in this work, having swept
and flushed the gutters with the same care as the laii's, are collected,
together with all the engines and tools which they used, as near as
possible to the sink or place of final egress of water from the premises,
and there disinfected as Avill be described.
" The tools, such as hooks, forks, spades, hoes, barrows, SiC, arc
scrubbed with the above solution of chloride of linio, and subse-
quently water, until clean; they ai-e then repeatedly wetted with the
solution, and after it has had time to disinfect the entire surface of
thom they arc washed clean and laid up or hung up to dry.
" The workmen then, having fiuislied tlie disinfection and flushing
of all objects and surfaces, eflect their own disinfection in the
following manner: —
They wash their boots most carefully with
chloride of lime and water, scraping the soles and scrubbing the
scams where the soles join the upper leather. They Avash theii-
hands and arms, and by means of ?lean rags or sponges they remove
 ;

57

any splashes from their clothes. After this they go indoors, I'emove
all clothes from head to foot, wash their bodies, and particularly
their hands, faces, hair and feet with plenty of soap and water, and
put on fresh clothes and linen. The clothes and linen which tliey
have taken off should be treated as infected, set to soak immediately
in boiling water, and afterwards disinfected, or in water containing
two ounces of chloride of lime to the gallon in solution, or containing
four ounces of Condy's red permanganate of potash fluid in solution
or the clothes and linen should be put in a copper and boiled, and
subsequently washed. All articles of little value which are much
soiled should be burned on a bright fire.
—
"^. Disinfection of Live Stock. l.--Live cattle may carry
infection in two ways: first, by being themselves infected with the
plague and rejiroducing the poison; and, secondly, by accidently
carrying the poison from other animals in a dormant state upon some
part of their sui-face, tlieir hair, and particularly their feet. These
latter animals may therefore infect others without being or becoming
themselves subjects of the plague. All persons, therefore, buying
new animals should disinfect them before allowing them to enter
their premises. In a similar manner, if in a stable there has been
a case of plague the healthy or apparently healthy animals should
all be disinfected.
—
"2. The mode in which live animals maybe disinfected con-
sists in washing them with disinfectant solutions of such strength as
will desti'oy the contagion without injuring the surface of the
animal. Asolution of two ounces of chloride of lime in a gallon of
water is a proper solution for washing the coat of animals. A
mixture of four ounces of Condy's red ^permanganate of potash fluid
with one gallon of water is also a ])roper disinfectant solution. For
full-sized coAvsand bullocks, t^-c, several gallons of either of these
solutions should be used. Great care should be taken to keep the
solution away from the eyes, nostrils, mouth, and tender parts.
When the entire surface is washed and disinfected, all disinfectant is
removed by the application of great quantities of clean tepid water to
all parts. The animal is given a warming and refreshing drink, and
is conducted by a clean attendant to the clean quarantine shed.

There it should receive fodder, both dry and green, and sop, and
plenty of pure cold water, and be rubbed dry with whisks of straAV
and hay.
"/''. The Quarantine Shed. — —
1. The quarantine shed is intended
to keep the new and suspected cattle separate for a jieriod of at least
ten days, in order to afford the security, to be obtained by obser-
vation alone, that it is not actually infected with plague. While,
therefore, disinfection of the surface of cattle removes one kind of
danger, another which cannot be removed can only be kept circum-
scribed or penned in, and this is done by the quarantine shed. But
the keeping of cattle in the quarantine shed would not disinfect its
 58

surface with certainty even during a mucli longer period than ten
days ; disinfection of the siu'face, therefore, cannot supply the pre-
caution of the quarantine shed, and a rigorous quarantine cannot
supply the effect of suiface dLsinfection, Both jjrecautions are neces-
sary for perfect security, although either of them, without the other,
obviates a particular kind and a certain amount of danger.
—
" 2. The quarantine shed should be situated in an isolated part of
the premises. All manure and urine from it should flow and be
carried to a particular place separate and distant from the common
dung-heap, and be buried daily.
" The utmost cleanliness should be observed in the shed. All
tools, jiails, currycombs, &c., \ised in this shed shoiild bo used in it
exclusively and nowhere else. The person attending the quarantine
shed should not be allowed to go into the shed Avhere healthy stock is
kept, or permitted to approach healthy stock. No person attending
healthy stock should be permitted to a]i})roach quarantine cattle, or to
go near or into the quarantine shed. But should unfortunately only
one person be available for both duties, that person should be allowed
to approach quarantine cattle only when clothed in the safety-di'css
immediately described.
" G. The Safety Dress. — —
1. This consists of strong water boots
reaching up to the knees, well greased all over ; of a waterproof coat,
buttoned close all the way up in front, and closing tightly round the
neck and wrists. The head is to be covered with a cap wliich takes
the hair well in.
—
" 2. Every pei'son having occasion to visit sheds in which there
is diseased cattle, or suspected cattle, or ipiarantine cattle, should be
provided with the above dress, })ut it on when entering the place,
take it off when leaving the place, and have it disinfected imme-
diately. This precaution should be sti'ictly observed by all inspectors,
all veterinarians, or others called in to attend sick cattle, by all
dealers and Ijutchers entering sheds, yards, or meadows for the
purpose of sale or purchase, and by all other persons coming un the
premises on business in connection with cattle.
—
" 3. The owners of stock shoidd not allow any sti-ansjers to
enter their sheds, yards, or meadows, exce})t in disinfected safety-
dresses; and in case this should give rise to difliculties, they will do
well to have themselves one or two such safety-dresses at hand, and
to cause all persons whose business compels them to enter their sheds
to leave then* own boots behind, and put on the long boots, water-
proof coat, and si)ecial cap. Only thus can they hope to exclude all
ordinary and oVjvious chances of infection from their ])reviouslv
healthy sheds, yju-ds, and meadows.
" J[. Measures to he Tahn un Prc7nisrs irlicrc Plague has Actualli/
Ajyprarcd. — 1. When the ]>lague has actually appeared in any shcij,
yard, or jdace, the sick animal should at once be removed with all
due precautious. It is certainly the safest and best to poleaxe the
 59

animal at once, and to buiy it entire, and then to disinfect the

particular lair as above described, clear out the stable or shed, disin-
fect the -whole of it, and all the apparatus, also all the animals, aiul

only to let the animals enter the shed, &c., again after it is completely
sweet and dry.
—
" 2. If, however, a proprietor is desirious of keeping a sick
animal because its illness does not appear sevei-e or fatal, he should
place it in a separate shed, which must not be the same as, or near to,
the quarantine shed, and be distant from all healthy animals, and so
situated that the prevailing wind does not blow from this hospital shed
to-\\-ards the healthy or quarantine shed. The water should also not
flow from this hospital shed towards the others, or the yard, or any
meadow, but should be carefully drained a^\'ay and sent off the
premises by a special sink.
—
" 3. To prevent the scattering of fteces by infected animals (and
also by suspected animals and all animals suftering from diarrhoea),
their tails should be so tied to one or other of their horns as to ])ro-
tect them against being soiled by the intestinal discharges, and to-
prevent them from distributing such discharges by the ceaseless
motions peculiar to these organs. The spattering of fteces should be
prevented by a copius supply of rough straw, with some sand, saw-
dust, or ashes placed behind and underneath the animal. The straw
and faeces should be dealt with as has been described. Animals affected
with plague or diarrhoja should not be led along the streets,
highroads, and paths, as they would be certain to drop infectious
faeces, which would then be distributed OA'er the entire leng-th of
these roads by the feet of men and animals, and the wheels of
vehiciles.
" 4.— The sick animals should be disinfected repeatedly; their
pens shoiild be cleaned and disinfected repeatedly during the coui-se
of the illness. This should 1)6 done by persons either guarded by
the safety-dress, or (and this is safest), by such as may not come into
contact with healthy cattle, or have to enter healthy sheds. All
tools, pails, fodder, &c., to be used in the hospital shed to be kept for
that purpose only, and ilever to be used with healthy, or quarantine,
or only suspected cattle.
" 5.— If the proprietor of any dead piece of cattle, whether it has
died naturally or been killed, should decide upon dismembering it
instead of burying it entire, and upon iitilizing the hide, horns,
tallow, and bones, he should disinfect the skin, horns, and hoofs, by
steeping them for one hour in a strong solution of chloride of lime,
containing lib. of the powder in each gallon of water, and afterwards
washing them. The tallow .should be thickly })0wdered with chloride
of lime all-over, and be sent directly to the boilers. It should not
be boiled in any vessel employed on the farm. Under all circimi-
stances, it is advisable to let this dismemberment of dead and fallen
cattle be performed at the knacker's yard.
 —

60

'<
6. —
Flesh, l)lood, guts, lungs, and the bones of the head of
infected animals should not be tralficked witli, tvs they cannot easily
be disinfected. They should always bo buried.
" Disinfection of Mcadous, Fields, liocids, S^-c.
/. 1. Meadows— —
infectedby diseased cattle should be carefully cleaned of all dung, by
burying each dropping on the spot where it lies, cutting out the round
piece of turf with the dropping on it, and turning it upside down. The
grass on the entire meadow sliould then be cut and burned. It should
then be left without any cattle for at lca.st a month, including at
least two wet days.
" 2. —All roails, paths, streets of towns, or villages should be
carefully and frequently scavenged. All carts, vans, or waggons used
for carryingmanure should be watertight, caulked, and painted, and
should not be permitted to ooze and drop their fluid or semi-fluid
contents on the road over which they are drawn. They should be
kept clean and disinfected, as a precautionary measure, by the pro-
ceedings above desci'ibed.

" III.— GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS.*

" In conclusion, it must be pointed out to farmers, dairymen, and
all persons having charge of cattle
"That the same great measures which are known to laaiutain
and restore the health of human beings ^vill also maintain and
restore the health of cattle.
" Pure ail- dry, spacious, well- ventilated and well-drained clean
:

sheds, cleaii and dry meadows jilenty of pure water

: fiequent curry-
:

in^ and washing the prevention -of the development, by the destruction
:

of the germs, of internal and external parasites, particularly entozoa :

proper food in suitable (quantities, and at projjcr times protection :

from inclement weather the utmost cleanliness in the removal of

:

manure the storing of the manm-e at a great distance from the

:

cattle shed, and, in addition, the most conscientious oljservance of the

precautionary and disinfecting mcivsures above described. All these
measures and agents together Avill secure the utmost possible health
of stock, and the prosperity of the agriculturist and dairyman. But
the neglect of any one of them will make the stock lialjle to become
infected, and the more so the more several or all callateral conditions
of the lundthy existence of animals are neglected. The negligent
man is therefore certain to lose, to injure his neighbour by defeating
his precautions, and to damage society but the watchful and i)ains-
;

takiuf man will be rewarded, not only by the preservation of his

property, but particularly by the consciousness that it has been pre-
served by his own care and attention, and that thereby he has also
benefited the State."

* In '• Rtiid and Tliink," .Tune 4tli, 1878, I siiirpi'Sted tliat Dr. Thudichiiiu and
" Safety Dress" in cases of
other physicians sliould comply witli the directions as to the
" Infectious Disease," in which, however, a lighter material might be permitted. J. C. J.
 REMARKS
BY

MISS NIGHTINGALE,

ON A PAMPHLET ENTITLED

i6
INFECTION."
Anon,

1867.
 62

REMAEKS.

This Pamphlet is ably written. It reminds one very much

of the arguments which in the middle ages might liavc been

brouglit by an enlightened man against witchcraft, as a cause

of disease.

The disease-germ-fetisli, and the witehcvaft-feti.-h are tlie

produce of the same mental condition ;

both of tliem considered
simply as superstitions, or harmless theories ; both of them
spring from the same source, a desire to group together a
number of detached phenomena, so as to make a kind of raft

on which weak minds can float. This view can easily be

confirmed, by reading any of the trials for Avitchcraft, and

comparing the facts and inductions, in the Cattle Plague

Report, and in other medical treatises on so called Contagious

Diseases. But when either the witchcraft hypothesis, or the

disease-germ hypothesis is made the basis of legislation on tlie

assumption that any public good can follow from any Acts of
Parliament, then the matter becomes very serious indeed ; and
the fact of such legislation being possible can only be con-

sidered as a striking proof iiow rapidly the (so called) scientific

mind of iMigland, is sinking into a condition of abject

superstition.

This is not the only evil ; commerce will inevitably suffer to

a greater extent than heretofore from these absurdities unless

a check is put on tliem.

 63

It cannot be otherwise, because the germ hypotliesis, if

logically followed out, must stop all human intercourse what-

ever, on pain or risk of disease or death.

The germ hypothesis, moreover, is directly at variance in

its results with ascertained sanitary experience, and to adopt

it as a basis of legislation is, in strict logic, to declare that the

Public Health Act, the Local Government Act, and all other

Local Acts for improving the public health, have been founded
on error.
This Pamphlet is the first protest made publicly against

this downward course.

The Author deserves great credit for his audacity, and

one can only hope that it will open the eyes of other
members of the House of Commons to the course on which
they have entered.